by Tunji Andrews

Nigeria’s finance minister said on Friday, 19 September, that she is confident that growth in 2014 will be around the government’s latest forecast of 6.5 percent after discounting the economic impact of the insurgency waged by the Islamist group Boko Haram.

This assertions would be from a strong economic showing in the 1st and 2nd quarters of 2014, despite huge security challenges. As observed in the first quarter of the year, the fastest growth continued to be recorded in the manufacturing sector as Chemical and Pharmaceutical products activities grew by 38.5% in the Second Quarter of 2014, albeit lower than the 41.61% growth recorded in the first quarter of 2014 by 3.1%.

The slowest Second Quarter growth was recorded under Electricity, Gas, Steam and Air-conditioning Supply, which exhibited negative real growth of 20.57% as electricity output slowed during the quarter

Other manufacturing activities among the fastest growing, include Non-Metallic Products, Textile, Apparel and Footwear, and Plastic and Rubber Products, all of which grew at a rate of close to 30%.

“We are confident it will be better than 6 percent and about 6.5,” Nigeria’s finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, told Reuters.

The government’s latest forecast set in the past few days, puts 2014 growth at 6.5 percent, she said, adding that the forecast already discounted the impact from the Boko Haram insurgency.

Okonjo-Iweala said the economic impact on Nigeria from the Ebola outbreak in West Africa was not yet significant.

The minister was in Singapore to attend a conference on Friday jointly organised by Singapore state investor Temasek, Goldman Sachs and the National University of Singapore, that discussed issues related to sustainable growth.

Kolapo Olapoju