Nine months of growth and counting: Nigeria's private sector keeps expanding, with the PMI at 55.7

Nigeria's businesses are having a quietly strong year. The Stanbic IBTC Purchasing Managers' Index — a monthly survey that reads above 50 when the private sector is growing — came in at 55.7 for October, the ninth consecutive month of expansion. Output rose across all four monitored sectors, extending the growth streak to 23 months, backlogs of work fell for a third month (a sign firms are coping with demand), and employment has now grown continuously since June 2025. The bank's analysts, led by head of equity research Muyiwa Oni, forecast the economy will grow 4.27% in 2026 and 4.65% in 2027. Surveys are not shipments — but nine straight months of them, all pointing the same way, is what momentum looks like on paper.

SDG 8 · Decent work and economic growth