April 10, 2026/Coronation Report
Summary
The World Bank released the April 2026 edition of its Nigeria Development Update (NDU), titled “Nigeria’s Tomorrow Must Start Today: The Case for Early Childhood Development.” The report presented a broadly positive assessment of Nigeria’s macroeconomic trajectory, while highlighting critical medium-term risks that investors and policymakers cannot afford to overlook.
According to the report, real GDP grew 3.87% in 2025, inflation declined sharply, and gross external reserves reached multi-year highs. However, the Bank identifies three material headwinds: the inflationary and financial market spillovers from the Middle East conflict that erupted in late February 2026; persistent structural constraints on inclusive growth; and a severe deficit in early childhood development outcomes, which the Bank frames not as a social concern, but as the foundational human capital gap standing between Nigeria’s current stabilisation and its long-run productivity potential.
This note distils the report’s key findings and their implications across four analytical baskets: real economy and growth, external sector and financial markets, fiscal accounts and public debt, and early childhood development.
Download the full report here
