Foremost rating agency, Standard & Poor’s ratings services has revised its outlook on the Federal Republic of Nigeria from stable to positive, while it has at the same affirmed the ‘b+/b’ long- and short-term issuer credit ratings and the ‘nga+/nga-1’ long- and short-term Nigeria national scale ratings.
The Transfer and Convertibility (T&C) assessment, however remains unchanged at ‘b+’.
According to a statement by the rating agency, the outlook revision indicates that there is at least a one-in-three likelihood of an upgrade if Nigeria’s reform initiatives ginger economic growth, build stronger buffers against Nigeria’s dependence on petroleum revenue and reduce pressure on the exchange rate.
The agency noted that Nigeria has maintained strong GDP growth rates over the past few years, tightened its fiscal and monetary stance by reducing projected fiscal deficits and by raising its monetary policy rate, and strengthened the banking sector it further stated that Nigeria’s efforts to improve predictability and transparency in the oil sector through the petroleum industry bill, and plans to overhaul the country’s electricity sector are positive signals from the country.
