The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has assured Nigerians that the latest economic recession in the country as a result of COVID-19 will be short lived.

The Minister made this announcement on Monday in Lagos at a New Year media briefing.

 He said that “the latest recession in Nigeria will be short-lived, and Nigeria will return to positive growth soon, unlike the 2016 recession which lasted five quarters.

“This is because of several complementary fiscal, real sector and monetary interventions proactively introduced by the government to forestall a far worse decline of the economy and alleviate the negative consequences of the pandemic,’’ he added.

The minister has said the present economy of the country is due to the effect of the COVID 19 pandemic. However, Nigeria is not alone in the situation; countries with giant economy like the US, UK, and Canada had entered into recession due to the pandemic. .

The minister also revealed that the recession also marked a lot of positive economic developments in the country.

“According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the decline of -3.62% in Q3 is much smaller than the -6.10% recorded in Q2.

“The economic conditions are actually improving, with 17 activities recording positive real growth in the third quarter, compared to 13 in Q2.

“Also, 36 of 46 economic activities did better in the third quarter of 2020 than in the second quarter of the same year.

“The -3.62 per cent contraction recorded in the third quarter of 2020 was better than the -6.01 per cent earlier forecast by the National Bureau of Statistics, and outperformed several domestic and international forecasts,’’ he said.

Mohammed noted that before COVID-19, ‘the Nigerian economy had been experiencing sustained growth, which was improving every quarter, until the second quarter of 2020 when the impact of the pandemic started to be felt.”