How Rich Is Nigeria?

How rich is Nigeria?

We all have our differing ideas on Nigeria's politics and other related issues, but lets for once focus on something we can actually find a definite answer to.

I have been doing  some research lately in hopes of finding out how rich Nigeria is. To be honest, the only reason I even decided to take up this challenge was because a lot of posters here, on nairaland, make comments that I find a little hard to swallow. I mean, if you took words of the majority of posters here, one would think Nigeria is a wealthy country.

Now, before I lay down the facts, I would like to make a distinction that I have that is not likely to be in line with that of other readers. I do not consider a large population a resource. Instead, I consider it a burden on the system. I would go into the reasons why while I comment on Nigeria's wealth.

According to www.answer.com, Nigeria's GDP is about $125.7 billion. That sounds like a lot, but you consider that this is a country with 129 million people (according to answer.com), that only translates to a little under $1,000.00 per person. Then when you consider that over 85 percent of this $125.7 billion comes from the petroleum  sector, a sector notorious for its little need of manpower, then you come to understand that even the already low figure of the average Nigerian making $1,000.00 is not true. Instead, the average Nigerian is making about 400 dollars or less, while the additional 600 dollars that they should make (if the system was perfect) in either monetary or benefit compensation is being poorly spent by the Federal, State and Local Governments. Please note, I am not saying a dollar a day (141 naira) is not enough to live on in Nigeria, but it is by no means a good living.

Now that we have an idea of the large scale picture of the country, lets take a look at the State level.

From the information I have been able to get, the monthly allocation to Edo (using this as my example) for the month of June was a little over 10 million dollars. So Edo, a State with 3.5 million people (2006 estimates), is allocated 10 million dollars to operate for 31 days. Typically, Nigerian States government spend 60-70 percent of their monthly allocation paying off civil servants. Lets assume Edo only pays 60 percent of its monthly allocation to the civil servants. That leaves 4 million dollars for the Government of the State to fund projects e.t.c. for the State. So, for every person in Edo, there is an allocation of a little more than $1.14 for an entire month.

Lastly, for those who are naive enough to assume that the Federal Government is funding projects for local governments, that is not the case. The Federal Government only manages roads that connect States, Military facilities and Federal buildings.

This is Nigeria for you. At a time when oil is selling at $70 a barrel (up from $9 a barrel during the mid 90s). If you think things are bad now, wait till the prices reduce to normal levels.

Let me know what your thoughts are on the wealth of Nigeria. Also, if you happen to have information that shows the monthly allocation of each State (the Nigerian Government is not doing a good enough job having this information easily accessible on the web) please post it.


Note: Please base your assumptions around numbers (provide links if you have any) and very little, if any, emotion or patriotism.

Thanks for the input, Toshman. I will like to make a distinction between GNP per capita and GDP per capita. GNP is all that is produced by Nigerian capital all over the world. While GDP per capita is all that is produced within the borders of Nigerians (foreign capital and domestic capital). So, oil would be included in GDP per Capita but it would be excluded from GNP per capita because Nigerian companies are not the ones that extract/export our oil.

and over 150 million people to share that money  

Here are some of the latest economic figures for Nigeria sourced from - http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ni.html

Economy - overview:   
Oil-rich Nigeria, long hobbled by political instability, corruption, inadequate infrastructure, and poor macroeconomic management, is undertaking some reforms under a new reform-minded administration. Nigeria's former military rulers failed to diversify the economy away from its overdependence on the capital-intensive oil sector, which provides 20% of GDP, 95% of foreign exchange earnings, and about 65% of budgetary revenues. The largely subsistence agricultural sector has failed to keep up with rapid population growth - Nigeria is Africa's most populous country - and the country, once a large net exporter of food, now must import food. Following the signing of an IMF stand-by agreement in August 2000, Nigeria received a debt-restructuring deal from the Paris Club and a $1 billion credit from the IMF, both contingent on economic reforms. Nigeria pulled out of its IMF program in April 2002, after failing to meet spending and exchange rate targets, making it ineligible for additional debt forgiveness from the Paris Club. In the last year the government has begun showing the political will to implement the market-oriented reforms urged by the IMF, such as to modernize the banking system, to curb inflation by blocking excessive wage demands, and to resolve regional disputes over the distribution of earnings from the oil industry. In 2003, the government began deregulating fuel prices, announced the privatization of the country's four oil refineries, and instituted the National Economic Empowerment Development Strategy, a domestically designed and run program modeled on the IMF's Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility for fiscal and monetary management. GDP rose strongly in 2005, based largely on increased oil exports and high global crude prices. In November 2005, Abuja won Paris Club approval for a historic debt-relief deal that by March 2006 should eliminate $30 billion worth of Nigeria's total $37 billion external debt. The deal first requires that Nigeria repay roughly $12 billion in arrears to its bilateral creditors. Nigeria would then be allowed to buy back its remaining debt stock at a discount. The deal also commits Nigeria to more intensified IMF reviews. 

GDP (purchasing power parity):     $174.1 billion (2005 est.) 
GDP (official exchange rate):    $77.33 billion (2005 est.) 
GDP - real growth rate:     6.2% (2005 est.) 
GDP - per capita (PPP):     $1,400 (2005 est.) 

GDP - composition by sector:    
agriculture: 26.8%
industry: 48.8%
services: 24.4% (2005 est.) 

Labor force:    57.21 million (2005 est.) 

Labor force - by occupation:   
agriculture: 70%
industry: 10%
services: 20% (1999 est.) 

Unemployment rate:    2.9% (2005 est.) 
Population below poverty line:   60% (2000 est.) 

Household income or consumption by percentage share:   
lowest 10%: 1.6%
highest 10%: 40.8% (1996-97) 

Distribution of family income - Gini index:   50.6 (1996-97) 
Inflation rate (consumer prices):    15.6% (2005 est.) 
Investment (gross fixed):    23.1% of GDP (2005 est.) 

Budget:    
revenues: $12.86 billion
expenditures: $13.54 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA (2005 est.) 

Public debt:     11.2% of GDP (2005 est.) 

Agriculture - products:    
cocoa, peanuts, palm oil, corn, rice, sorghum, millet, cassava (tapioca), yams, rubber; cattle, sheep, goats, pigs; timber; fish 

Industries:   
crude oil, coal, tin, columbite; palm oil, peanuts, cotton, rubber, wood; hides and skins, textiles, cement and other construction materials, food products, footwear, chemicals, fertilizer, printing, ceramics, steel, small commercial ship construction and repair