General Overview of the Nigerian Economy
Nigeria is a middle income, mixed economy and emerging market, with expanding manufacturing, financial, service, communications, technology and entertainment sectors. It is ranked as the 21st largest economy in the world in terms of nominal GDP, and the 20th largest in terms of Purchasing Power Parity. It is the largest economy in Africa; its re-emergent manufacturing sector became the largest on the continent in 2013, and produces a large proportion of goods and services for the West African subcontinent. Also, the debt-to-GDP ratio is only 11 percent, which is 8 percent below the 2012 ratio.
Previously hindered by years of mismanagement, economic reforms of the past decade have put Nigeria back on track towards achieving its full economic potential. Nigerian GDP at purchasing power parity (PPP) has almost tripled from $170 billion in 2000 to $451 billion in 2012, although estimates of the size of the informal sector (which is not included in official figures) put the actual numbers closer to $630 billion. Correspondingly, the GDP per capita doubled from $1400 per person in 2000 to an estimated $2,800 per person in 2012 (again, with the inclusion of the informal sector, it is estimated that GDP per capita hovers around $3,900 per person). (Population increased from 120 million in 2000 to 160 million in 2010). These figures are to be revised upwards by as much as 80% when metrics are recalculated subsequent to the rebasing of its economy in April 2014.
Statistics |
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|---|---|
| GDP | $492.986 billion (nominal; 2016) $1,105.343 Billion (PPP; 2016) |
| GDP rank | 21st (nominal) / 20th (PPP) |
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GDP growth
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 2.1% (2016) |
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GDP per capita
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$2,758 (nominal) $6,184 (PPP) |
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GDP by sector
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agriculture: 17.8% industry: 25.7% services: 54.6% (2015) |
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Inflation (CPI)
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9% ( May 2015) |
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Population belowpovertyline
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33% (2013) |
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Gini Coefficient
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43.0 (2010) |
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Labour force
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74 million (Q2 2015) |
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Labour force by occupation
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Accommodation, Food, Transportation and Real estate: 12.2% Education, Health, Science and Technology: 6.3% Farming, Forestry and Fishing: 30.5% Manufacturing, Mining and Quarrying: 11.3% Retail, Maintenance, repair, and operations: 24.9% Managerial, Finance and Insurance: 4.2% Telecommunication, Arts and Entertainment: 1.8% Other services: 8.8% (2010) |
| Unemployment | 6.4% (Q1 2015) |
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Main industries
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cement, oil refining, construction and construction materials, food processing and food products, beverages and tobacco, textiles, apparel and footwear, pharmaceutical products, wood products, pulp paper products, chemicals, ceramic products, plastic and rubber products, electrical and electronic products, base metals: iron and steel, information technology, automobile manufacturing, and other manufacturing (2015) |
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Nature and Structure of Industries in Nigeria
The mining sector (comprised of the oil and natural gas sector) is the largest Nigeria industrial sector. The sector accounts for more than 90% of the annual national production, while generating more than 80% of the government revenues. For instance, the country produces 2.169 million barrels per day (2007 statistics). In terms of oil export volumes, the country ranks approximately 8th in the world. Consequently, it is safe to say that the oil sector more or less the mainstay of the Nigerian economy.
But asides the oil sector, there are other sectors which play pivotal roles in terms of revenue generation and job creation. These are-
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Agriculture- accounts for 18 percent of the national GDP
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Services- Nigeria is said to rank 27th worldwide and first in Africa in terms of services’ output.
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Transport
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Tourism
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Entertainment- The Nigerian entertainment industry serves as the source of employment to many people especially the youth. The Movie and Entertainment sectors also generates quite a lot of money.
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Overseas Remittances-A major source of foreign exchange earnings for Nigeria are remittances sent home by Nigerians living abroad. In 2014, 17.5 million Nigerians lived in foreign countries, with the UK and the USA having more than 2 million Nigerians each.
Read more below-
SS1 Economics Third Term: The Nature of the Nigerian Economy
