Nigeria's economy nosedived into a recession, official data showed today, with oil production hammered by militant attacks on pipelines and foreign investment at a "record" low.
Output in the three months to the end of June was -2.1 per cent with the oil sector reporting a double-digit decline following a wave of attacks by rebels in the oil-producing south.
The slowdown was recorded across many sectors in a sign that Africa's economic giant is wrestling with deeper structural issues than just the low price of crude.
During the oil boom, sales of oil at high prices had made Nigeria the biggest economy in Africa.
But when the price of crude crashed from more than $100 a barrel in June 2014 to below $50 today, Nigeria's economy collapsed.
The crisis was compounded by President Muhammadu Buhari's unorthodox decision to prop up the naira at 197-199 to the dollar causing foreign currency reserves to tank.
International investors, wary of the controversial currency peg, avoided putting money into the country, leading to a "record" decline in capital importation, reported Nigeria's National Bureau of Statistics.
The USD 647 million worth of capital imported into Nigeria in the second quarter represented a "fall of 76 percent" compared to 2015.
"This provisional figure would be the lowest level of capital imported into the economy on record, and would also represent the largest year on year decrease," said the statistics agency.
"There was considerable uncertainty surrounding future exchange rate policy which may have deterred investors," it added.
Reacting to a spike in inflation and growing discontentment, Buhari's government finally devalued the naira in June.
But Nigeria's policies have yet to inspire any real confidence at a time when inflation is hovering around 17 percent and there is still a dollar shortage.
The country's oil sector -- which accounts for the majority of Nigeria's government revenues -- is still under seige by militants in the Niger delta, who are attacking pipelines in a bid for greater control of the resource and more political autonomy.
"It's really, really grim," John Ashbourne, Africa economist at research firm Capital Economics, told AFP.
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