Nigeria has overtaken South Africa as Africa’s largest economy after a rebasing calculation almost doubled its gross domestic product to more than $500bn, data from the statistics office showed.
Gross Domestic Prod for 2013 in Africa’s top oil producer was 80.22 trillion naira, or $509.9bn, the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics said, up from the 42.3 trillion estimated before the rebasing, according to the Reuters news agency.
Most governments overhaul GDP calculations every few years to reflect changes in output, but Nigeria had not done so since 1990, so sectors such as e-commerce, mobile phones and its prolific “Nollywood” film industry – now worth 1.4 percent of GDP, Kale said – had to be factored in to give a better picture.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country with 170 million people, has been growing as an investment destination owing to the size of its consumer market and growing capital markets.
This may not have any impact on the immediate short and long term because a lot of Nigerians are finding it difficult to make earns meet.
Besides, South Africa currently represents Africa at the G20, as well as in the “BRICS” group of the most powerful emerging economies, which also includes Brazil, Russia, India and China.
