Africa today became a 0.5 Trillion Economy with Nigeria officially overtaking South Africa as largest African Economy after rebasing its Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

Nigeria emerged as the largest African Economy with estimated 2013 GDP of N80.5 Trillion ($509.9bn: £307.6bn) over taking South Africa and making it No1 in Africa, 26 globally ahead of Austria and 121^st  in per capita globally with $2688 per capita according to the Statistician-General of Nigeria, Dr. Yemi Kale Address in Abuja today Sunday, April 6.

Explaining the concept of GDP and how it is calculated, as well as a presentation on the process of rebasing the nation’s GDP, Dr. Kale noted that rebasing does not imply new figures only, but shows clearly the performance of the economy in data form. He noted that rebasing and re-benchmarking of the GDP was just one of the things the country needs to get its statistics right. Also warning that it was important that we “do not mix data with ideology”. He added, “We need to be more objective in the way we apply our data.”

GDP Rebasing is carried out so that a nation’s GDP statistics give the most up-to-date picture of an economy as possible.

Nigerian GDP now includes previously uncounted industries like telecoms, information technology, music, online sales, airlines, and film production. And more emphasis on growth sectors such SME, Housing and Insurance was encourage by the CME Ngozi Okonjo Iweala

 

Endorsing the rebasing, IMF commended the Methodology used and the multilateral Institution, which ensured quality statistics

Nigeria last rebased its GDP was in 1990.Rebasing are usually done every 3-5 years , but Nigeria had not updated the components in its GDP base year since 1990, blaming factor such as Military Regime and Paradigm Shift for the delay. Today Nigeria has 120 Million Active Telephone lines Compared to 200,000 Nitel phone lines in 1990 and  400,000 GSM in 2003.

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Written by Ruth Obih

2014-04-06