Boko Haram’s insurgency will slow Nigeria’s economy again this year, knocking half a percentage point off growth like last year, the country’s finance minister said on Tuesday, adding that her 6.75 percent 2014 growth forecast took this into account.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala told Reuters that while the violence in the northeast might put off some potential foreign investors, those who were in Nigeria for the long term seemed to be holding their nerve, as did portfolio investors in its government debt.
“We are expecting about 6.75 (percent growth in 2014) and we have accounted for the impact of the insurgency which we will think will take half a percentage point off Gross Domestic Product growth,” she said in an interview during a visit to Berlin.
Nigeria overtook South Africa as the continent’s biggest economy this year, following a rebasing calculation that almost doubled its gross domestic product. The economy grew about 6.4 percent last year, the minister said, with the sect attacks having most economic impact on agriculture in the northeast.
The economist and former World Bank vice-president said her talks with German Finance Minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, emphasised “our strong fundamentals despite the challenges that we face.”
She sought his support for the creation of a new Nigerian development bank to improve financing to small and medium-sized private enterprises which could become an “engine for growth” as the country seeks to diversify its economy away from oil.

Boko Haram will slow GDP growth – Okonjo-Iweala