For the second time in four years, the continent's largest economic power is entering a recession.

The information was announced by the Bureau of Statistics : after having already declined by 6% in the previous quarter, Nigeria's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contracted by 3.62% in the third quarter of 2020.

The Bureau of Statistics explains this sharp decline in Nigeria's GDP - whose cumulative decline over the first nine months amounts to 2.48%" - by the significant impact of the coronavirus epidemic on the global economy and in particular the fall in oil prices.

Production increases from 2 billion to 1.4 billion barrels of oil

Nigeria is indeed the continent's largest oil producer. The country is suddenly hit hard by the fall in the price of fuel which has reduced its production of barrels from 2 billion to 1.4 billion.

According to the IMF, the country's business is likely to be strongly impacted: The International Monetary Fund forecasts a decline in Nigeria's GDP of 5.4% for 2020.

In 2016 – and for the first time in 20 years – Nigeria's economy had already been declared recession.