JUXTA POSING NIGERIA’S GROWING ECONOMY;
Nigeria has declared itself the
biggest economy in Africa.
Overnight, with the wave of a
statistical wand, it has added
89% to its GDP, now worth
$510 billion, and soared past
the previous leader, South
Africa, worth $370 billion.
Nothing has changed in
Nigeria’s real economy,
except the way it is
measured. Yet the magic
matters.
The GDP revision is not mere
trickery. It provides a truer
picture of Nigeria’s size by
giving due weight to the bits
of the economy, such as
telecoms, banking and the
Nollywood film industry, that
have been growing fast in
recent years. Other countries
perform similar statistical
magic—Ghana, for
example, added 60% to its
economy in 2010—though
few wait two decades, as
Nigeria inexcusably did, to
update the national accounts.
In Nigeria’s case, the new
numbers confirm that it really
is the colossus of the
continent.
Its economy has been
growing at an average rate of
around 7% a year over the
past decade. It is rich in
resources, especially oil. It
has energetic entrepreneurs
and aspirations to be the tech
hub of Africa, boasting
startups such as Konga and
Jumia, budding Nigerian
Alibabas. In other industries
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