Abuja — Nigeria's nominal Gross Domestic Product, GDP, now stands at
$509.9 billion, making the nation's economy the largest in Africa and
the 26th in the world, according to the preliminary results of the
rebasing exercise of the federal government.
The Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance,
Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, announced this at a press conference jointly
addressed with the Statistician-General, S-G, Dr. Yemi Kale, in Abuja
yesterday.
The GDP is the market value of all final goods and services produced
within a country in a given period. It is an internationally recognized
indicator for measuring the size of an economy in a given period of
time.
*Briefing on Result of GDP in Nigeria: Minister of Finance and
Coordinating Minister of Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo -Iweala chatting with
Minister of National Planning Amb. Bashiru Yuguda and Statistician
-General of the Federation and CEO of National Bureau of Statistics Dr.
Yemi Kale during presentation of Preliminary Results of the Rebased
Nominal Gross Domestic Product ( GDP) Estimates from Nigeria 2010 to
2013 held in Abuja. Photo by Gbemiga Olamikan.
The rebased estimates indicate that the nominal GDP for Nigeria was
much higher than previously estimated . In 2010 the estimate was $360.
644 billion; in 2011 it was $408.805 billion; and 2012 $453.966 billion.
The growth rate is driven by the services sector with it contributing about 51 per cent of the GDP.
The rebasing exercise on the Nigerian economy which also saw the Per
capita rising to $2, 688, covered 2010 to 2013. Nigeria has moved on the
per capita scale from 135 to 121st position.
This is after more than two decades of the last exercise in 1990, far
beyond the United Nations Statistical Commission, UNSC, recommendations
that countries should rebase their national accounts (GDP) estimates
every five years.
Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said that the results had been subjected to a
six-man independent panel of reviewers led by Prof. Olu Ajakaiye , as
well as, representatives of multilateral organizations, especially the
International Monetary Fund, the World bank and the African Development
bank.
According to her the policy implications of the new figures were that
the nation has a larger capacity for consumption and thus make Nigeria
more attractive to international and local investors.
She admitted however, that the government needed to build social
safety nets to close the income inequality gap in the country saying,
"inequality has been rising so we need to build social safety nets meant
to take care of those at the bottom of the ladder".
The minister added however, that the oil and gas sector also needed
federal government attention, as according to her, a sector with over 15
per cent contribution to the GDP cannot be ignored.
Dr. Okonjo-Iweala also said that the sudden leap of the large
contribution of the services posed a challenge for the government to
take more measures for a stronger manufacturing sector, in conjunction
with the organized private sector.
The new figures indicated a debt to GDP of 11 per cent, down from 19
per cent but the minister said that the federal government would
continue to be prudent in its debt portfolio to avoid a situation in
which the country could fall into a non-sustainable debt trap, as was
the case, in the past.
In his presentation, the S-G said that the past GDP estimates were
less than the real position of the economy and that there was need to
take another look at the nation's poverty rate.
The S-G said however, that "GDP is a macroeconomic aggregate that
depicts the totality of economic output within a nation's borders. While
it depicts how rich a nation is, this is not necessarily the same as
showing how rich the individuals in the nation are, due to the problem
of unequal distribution of wealth.
Methodology
On methodology, Dr. Kale disclosed that preparatory work for the rebasing exercise commenced in the last quarter of 2011.
He said several activities were undertaken, some of which include the
on-going development of a Supply & Use Matrix, field surveys for
certain economic activities which were not adequately captured
previously, validation with sector experts as well as the international
development partners.
S-G added that three major methodological pillars were used to
compile the rebased GDP estimates: the System of National Accounts (SNA
2008 version), the International Standard Industrial Classification
(ISIC Revision 4); and the Central Product Classification (CPC version
2).
Wholesale and retail trade was the economic activity with the most
notable changes between the old and new GDP series. This is attributable
to the effort made by the NBS during the rebasing exercise to capture
more of the informal sector. Telecommunications and information
services; motion pictures and sound recording; cement production; food,
beverage and tobacco; construction and real estate sectors also
witnessed significant changes.
Reps react
Members of the House of Representatives who reacted to the newly
published Nigeria's nominal Gross Domestic Product, GDP, which now
stands at $509.9 billion, described it as a positive development in the
right direction
According to the lawmakers, since it is quite sometime that such an
estimate was made public it will create some doubts in the minds of
Nigerians but that not withstanding, it is a welcome development.
Chairman House Committee on Appropriation, Rep John Enoh, PDP, Cross
River, an economist had this to say,"I know that since it has been a
long time such statistics were published, it may create some doubts in
the minds of Nigerians but all the same it is a welcome development".
Also speaking in the same vein, Rep Tajudeen Yusuf, PDP, Kogi, an
economist described it as a welcome development worth cheering but
insisted that "our poor infrastructural facilities may weigh it down".
Jobless graduates: development is on paper
Nigerian graduates, Walter Takim and Odunayo Ayansina, who are still
looking for jobs said the government should be ashamed for it to have
published such statistics in spite of the current situation of the
country's economy which has remained in the downward trend.
They argued that Nigeria could not even be rated the best in the West Africa sub-region.
Walter Takim in his reaction said; "In fact, as I speak with you
Nigeria is not among the best countries in the West African sub region,
even in the standard of West Africa as far as am concerned is not
operating the best economy so far, in fact when we are dealing with the
world economy Nigeria's name should not even be mentioned in the first
place, we are still struggling to come out of this developing system.
"As an underdeveloping country we should not say anything about our economy, we should be struggling to get out of poverty.
"There is still circle of poverty that is permeating our system, what
are we talking about economy when youths cannot get job. I am not happy
with the country.
Odunayo Job, another graduate noted that; "It is not getting better
for me, when we have about 69 percent living on less that N6000 monthly.
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