Nigerians have for long erroneously assumed that their country is wealthy and that the only reason why the country is still regarded as a third world country is due to corruption and mismanagement of politicians. They assumed that with the vast oil fields in the Niger-Delta, and multitude of natural resources buried across the country, Nigeria shouldn’t be poor. However, the reality is different, corruption and mismanagement should be Nigeria’s ‘B’ problem.

Overview of Nigeria’s poverty

Nigeria is poor, stark poor. Outside Lagos and Abuja, the poverty rate in Nigeria is severe. According to a 2016 United Nations, UN, report on
Nigeria’s Common Country Analysis, CCA, about 64% of the country’s 175million population is poor. The poverty rate in some of the northern states is much worse with some states having as high as 80%.

The mathematical error

Gross domestic product (GDP) is the monetary value of all the finished goods and services produced within a country's borders in a specific time period. Nigeria’s GDP is over $520billion. Government revenue is the amount of taxes, licensing fees, fines, etc that a government receives within a specific period of time. Government revenues plus external borrowings is what is used to finance the yearly budget. Nigeria’s revenue is #3.8trillion (about $12billion). A lot of Nigerian’s assume that the government earns $520billion a year.
$12billion is too small for a country with over 180 million people. In practice, the country earns roughly the same amount The English Premier League earns in TV broadcast rights (£10billion). South Africa with a population less than 55million earns about $9billion a year while the United States earns over $216billion a year!

The way forward

The government has to find a way of drastically improving the revenue. Nigerians spends over $1billion dollars a year on foreign medical trips, which is not sustainable. Former British Prime Minister Margret Thatcher bought and installed cameras for the broadcast of English Premier League matches; today those broadcast rights are worth £10billion a year.

Fat payouts to government officials, corruption and mismanagement needs to be reduced. In all, the Nigerian government needs to find better and smarter way s of spending the little money it earns.

source: http://www.afriforum.net/306/mathematical-explanation-of-why-nigeria-is-a-poor-natio

Nice one, looters are waiting for more revenues too