Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has revealed that Nigeria is now the largest economy in Africa and the 26th largest economy in the World.
Okonjo-Iweala disclosed the development in Abuja on Sunday while briefing newsmen on the results of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rebasing exercise.
Speaking at the briefing, Okonjo-Iweala observed from the recent exercise that the country’s estimated GDP in 2013 is N80.2 trillion (approximately $509.9 billion), thus climbing to the rank of the largest economies in the world.
“Nigeria has moved to be the largest economy by GDP size in Africa and has moved to be the 26th largest economy in the world; it notched 10 points up. On a per capita basis, Nigeria is number 121 in the world so we have the total GDP size of $2,688 per capita now and moved up from 135”, she observed.
However, Okonjo-Iweala warned that notwithstanding the country’s new GDP size making it the largest in Africa and 26th in the world, if it is divided by the total number of the citizen’s population, it may not be so significant.
The minister explained that the GDP share of some sectors have now crawled high into recognition to become very important to the country.
“Manufacturing moved from 2per cent to 7per cent, which is significant and telecommunications moved from a mere 1 per cent to 3 per cent. Nollywood has moved from zero per cent to 1.2 per cent now, and it was not included in the GDP that was earlier measured as well as a lot of telecommunications services”, she explained.
“A whole lot of services in the formal and informal sectors were excluded from our GDP and these have now been brought in, in terms of measurement. This rise in services is not unusual for any economy and the fact that agriculture is now 22 per cent does not make it any less important. Agriculture still has a strong share of GDP and that is why we will maintain our focus”.
She added that the diversified economy Nigeria is wishing for is what is being revealed now in the rebasing result.
“This is what Nigerians have been wishing for”, she noted. A more diversified economy is showing up in these numbers, with better information we can see that the economy is more diversified than before”.
She bemoaned the dropping share of oil and gas to about 15.9 per cent but quickly added that the sector is still very important to the economy, explaining that any sector contributing up to 10 per cent or more to the GDP is considered important to the economy.
She urged the government to continue supporting diversification of the economy while also sustaining agriculture and manufacturing since both sectors have displayed positive growth as a result of good supporting policies.