The World Bank reported that the naira experienced a record depreciation of 10.2 percent in 2022. It attributed this decline to rising global food and fuel prices and to the weakening exchange rate, both of which intensified inflationary pressures across Sub‑Saharan Africa. The Bank also noted that the Ghanaian cedi depreciated by about 40 percent and weakened an additional 20 percent in 2023. Other currencies that suffered significant losses last year included the Sudanese dinar (‑23.6 percent), the Malawian kwacha (‑20.7 percent), the Gambian dalasi (‑14.6 percent), and the Nigerian naira.
For Nigeria, the World Bank highlighted that oil production rose in late 2022, aided by improved security that helped curb oil theft, though output remains below the OPEC+ quota. In January 2023, production reached a ten‑month high of 1.34 million barrels per day, still short of the quota. Meanwhile, non‑oil economic activity stayed weak as the agriculture and industrial sectors faced sharply higher energy and raw‑material costs, exacerbated by a weaker naira in the foreign‑exchange market.
In the Western and Central Africa sub‑region, the Bank observed a moderation of growth at the start of the year, driven by mounting fiscal pressures, limited fiscal space, unsustainable debt positions, and persistently high inflation affecting the region’s largest economies. In Nigeria, recent activity data show mixed results. Real GDP growth exceeded expectations in the fourth quarter of 2022, rising to 3.5 percent year‑on‑year from 2.3 percent in the third quarter, with improvements in both oil and non‑oil sectors. Non‑oil activity grew slightly to 4.4 percent year‑on‑year in Q4 2022, up from 4.3 percent in Q3, driven by faster growth in agriculture and a manufacturing recovery. However, demonetisation efforts that began in mid‑December are weighing on economic activity.
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