CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, made the prediction on Friday during the 55th annual Bankers Dinner which held in Lagos.

Emefiele noted that the expected economic growth was two per cent.

“With the sustained implementation of our intervention measures, we do expect that the Nigerian economy could emerge from the recession by the first quarter of 2021.”

“We also expect that growth in 2021 would attain 2.0 per cent. However, downside risks remain, as restoration of full economic activities, particularly in service-related sectors, remains uncertain until a COVID vaccine is produced and made available to millions of people across the world.

“Second, with the significant rise in cases in advanced markets and the imposition of lockdowns in parts of Europe, concerns remain on the impact this could have on growth in advanced economies, commodity prices and the financial markets,” he said.

The CBN governor also called for measures to “insulate our economy from the impact of these shocks through our diversification efforts, while also working to ensure that we adhere to safety protocols in order to prevent a surge in COVID-19 related cases, as this could further cripple economic activities.

“Our actions in 2021 would be guided by the considerations that emerged from the Monetary Policy Committee meeting of November 23 & 24, 2020, which sought to address the major headwinds exerting downward pressure on output growth and upward pressure on domestic prices.”

Emefiele’s remarks come six days after Nigeria’s economy slipped into another recession, the second of its kind in a space of four years.

Godwin Emefiele, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) disclosed this on Tuesday.

According to him, this is part of efforts to boost the Economic growth of the country following the  a new report released by the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics, disclosed that Nigeria has slipped into another recession after the economy shrank in the third quarter of this year.

The same happened in 2016, making it the second recession in a space of four years.

The cumulative Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the first nine months of 2020, therefore, stood at -2.48 per cent just as it recorded a -6.10 per cent in the second quarter.

According to Emefiele, recession was anticipated and measures were put in place to manage its impact.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, had on Monday, speculated that the country will exit recession by the first quarter of 2021.

The Minister disclosed this at the ongoing 26th Nigerian Economic Summit organised by the Nigerian Economic Summit Group and the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget, and National Planning.

She said the country would exit from the recession in the fourth quarter of this year or by the first quarter of 2021.

Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy, entered its second recession in five years in the third quarter of this year as the Gross Domestic Product fell for the second consecutive quarter.

The GDP dropped by 3.62 per cent in Q3 and 6.10 per cent in Q2, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

The finance minister said the COVID-19-induced recession followed the pattern across the world where many countries had entered economic recession.

“Let me remind us that before the impact of COVID-19, the Nigerian economy was experiencing sustained growth, which had been improving quarter by quarter until the second quarter of 2020, when the impact of the COVID-19 was felt,” she said.

Ahmed said other countries also in recession, including the United Kingdom and the United States, recorded much deeper contraction than that of Nigeria.

“Nigeria is not alone in this, but I will say that Nigeria has outperformed all of these economies in terms of the record of a negative growth.”

According to her, South Africa, which recorded a decline of -50 per cent compared to Nigeria’s -6.1 per cent in Q2, will also record a deeper negative growth in Q3.

“While the economy has entered into recession in the third quarter, the trend of the growth suggests that this will be a short-lived recession, and indeed by the fourth or, at worst, the first quarter of 2021, the country will exit recession.

“Our expectation of a quick exit, which will be historically fast, is anchored on the several complementary fiscal, real sector and monetary interventions that have been proactively introduced by government to forestall a far worse decline of the economy and alleviate the negative consequences of the pandemic,” Ahmed said.

This year’s recession, occasioned by the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic and collapse in oil prices is worse than that of 2016.

The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Africa’s most populous country has now contracted by -2.48%.

The National Bureau of Statistics, in its Gross Domestic Product report for Q3, said the GDP, the broadest measure of economic prosperity, fell by 3.62 in the three months to September.

The dismal performance in the quarter was caused by the restrictions to movement and economic activity due to coronavirus.

The Q3 aggregate GDP stood at N39,089,460.61 million in nominal terms.

This was lower relative to growth recorded in the third quarter of 2019 by –9.91%.