iterator25:

Nigeria is expected to release revised economic numbers from 1990 to 2008. That is expected to show that the country has overtaken South Africa as Africa's largest economy

.With us to discuss all this is professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst Léonce Ndikumana. He is a professor of economics at UMass Amherst, as I mentioned, and he's the director of the African Policy Program at the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI).Thank you for joining us.LÉONCE NDIKUMANA, ASSOC. PROF. ECONOMICS AND LAW, UMKC: Thank you very much for the opportunity.DESVARIEUX: So, Professor, let's talk about Nigeria. It's moving to become the number-one economy on the African continent. What is the cause behind this rapid economic growth?NDIKUMANA: Thank you very much. I think this is a very important and interesting question.There are two things that we need to single out. One is that even as of today, Nigeria is the second-largest economy on the continent, with about $262 billion in 2012, compared to $384 billion GDP for South Africa.

The second one is that Nigeria had been growing quite fast. In 2011, they grew by 7.4 percent, which that went down a little bit to 26.6 percent in 2012. At the same time, South Africa's been growing a little bit slower, in the range of 2 to 3 percent, which is consistent with a more mature economy. So that by itself would mean that over time Nigeria is going to get closer and closer to South Africa. Even if you look at the last 12 years, in 2012 the economy of South Africa was about three times larger than the economy of Nigeria. Now it's about 1.5 percent.Now you bring in another factor, which is the rebasing of the national data in Nigeria, which is something that other countries are going to also have to undertake because their national accounts based on outdated--have outdated bases, in the sense that some sectors which were not there when they were doing the calculations now are more predominant in production of goods and services.

One of the biggest new innovation is the telecom sector, which is becoming a bigger and bigger part of the service sector. So this requires countries to go back in their statistics and redo the weighting of each economic sector. And this, for many countries, is going to result in a larger major amount of national output, which is GDP. Ghana has already done it, and Nigeria is on track of releasing their new statistics. And this will result in a larger GDP for Nigeria. And, again, as you said, it may be the case that they may be either closer, even take over South Africa, assuming that South Africa doesn't do the rebasing [incompr.]DESVARIEUX: And I can imagine what's propelling this rapid growth is that three-letter word, oil, since Nigeria has a lot of it. What do you make of that?NDIKUMANA: Yes. As you indicated, the rapid growth in Nigeria over the past years is driven mainly by the oil sector.

To give you an example, of the six point--while the country as a whole grew by 6.6 percent in 2012, the oil sector actually grew faster, by 8 percent, which means that some of the sectors were shrinking. And this poses--is a source of concern because oil, the oil sector, as we know, is a very capital-intensive sector, which means that it doesn't create lots of jobs.At the same time, since we're talking about South Africa and Nigeria, they share two important problems. One is unemployment, and the second is [incompr.] to global markets, shocks in global markets. Unemployment has been high in South Africa. It's known. And they have very good statistics. It's about 25 percent. In fact, Nigerian unemployment over the past two years has been increasing from 21 percent to 24 percent. So even as the economy's growing in Nigeria, unemployment is actually growing at the same time, which is the result of the fact that growth is taking place in sectors that are not creating employment. So this is a major, major problem for Nigeria.


At the same time, the sectors which are the life--which provide the life for the majority of the population, especially agriculture, is not growing as fast, because there has not been sufficient investment in technology so that productivity in agriculture, the mainstay of the livelihood of the population, is actually seeing a decline in productivity. And that is true for Nigeria as well for many other countries.

So the challenge for Nigeria is how to harness these oil resources so that the growth in revenue that's coming from oil can actually trigger expansion in other sectors outside of the oil sector.


http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=10954

InvertedHammer:


Tell your doctor to change the medications for you.

The one you are on now is not working.

If not that I am in a good mood today, I would have said that what Nigeria has is a voodoo economy.

Novice1: The only area we surpass South Africa is in corruption

iterator25:

Nigeria is expected to release revised economic numbers from 1990 to 2008. That is expected to show that the country has overtaken South Africa as Africa's largest economy

.With us to discuss all this is professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst Léonce Ndikumana. He is a professor of economics at UMass Amherst, as I mentioned, and he's the director of the African Policy Program at the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI).Thank you for joining us.LÉONCE NDIKUMANA, ASSOC. PROF. ECONOMICS AND LAW, UMKC: Thank you very much for the opportunity.DESVARIEUX: So, Professor, let's talk about Nigeria. It's moving to become the number-one economy on the African continent. What is the cause behind this rapid economic growth?NDIKUMANA: Thank you very much. I think this is a very important and interesting question.There are two things that we need to single out. One is that even as of today, Nigeria is the second-largest economy on the continent, with about $262 billion in 2012, compared to $384 billion GDP for South Africa.

The second one is that Nigeria had been growing quite fast. In 2011, they grew by 7.4 percent, which that went down a little bit to 26.6 percent in 2012. At the same time, South Africa's been growing a little bit slower, in the range of 2 to 3 percent, which is consistent with a more mature economy. So that by itself would mean that over time Nigeria is going to get closer and closer to South Africa. Even if you look at the last 12 years, in 2012 the economy of South Africa was about three times larger than the economy of Nigeria. Now it's about 1.5 percent.Now you bring in another factor, which is the rebasing of the national data in Nigeria, which is something that other countries are going to also have to undertake because their national accounts based on outdated--have outdated bases, in the sense that some sectors which were not there when they were doing the calculations now are more predominant in production of goods and services.

One of the biggest new innovation is the telecom sector, which is becoming a bigger and bigger part of the service sector. So this requires countries to go back in their statistics and redo the weighting of each economic sector. And this, for many countries, is going to result in a larger major amount of national output, which is GDP. Ghana has already done it, and Nigeria is on track of releasing their new statistics. And this will result in a larger GDP for Nigeria. And, again, as you said, it may be the case that they may be either closer, even take over South Africa, assuming that South Africa doesn't do the rebasing [incompr.]DESVARIEUX: And I can imagine what's propelling this rapid growth is that three-letter word, oil, since Nigeria has a lot of it. What do you make of that?NDIKUMANA: Yes. As you indicated, the rapid growth in Nigeria over the past years is driven mainly by the oil sector.

To give you an example, of the six point--while the country as a whole grew by 6.6 percent in 2012, the oil sector actually grew faster, by 8 percent, which means that some of the sectors were shrinking. And this poses--is a source of concern because oil, the oil sector, as we know, is a very capital-intensive sector, which means that it doesn't create lots of jobs.At the same time, since we're talking about South Africa and Nigeria, they share two important problems. One is unemployment, and the second is [incompr.] to global markets, shocks in global markets. Unemployment has been high in South Africa. It's known. And they have very good statistics. It's about 25 percent. In fact, Nigerian unemployment over the past two years has been increasing from 21 percent to 24 percent. So even as the economy's growing in Nigeria, unemployment is actually growing at the same time, which is the result of the fact that growth is taking place in sectors that are not creating employment. So this is a major, major problem for Nigeria.


At the same time, the sectors which are the life--which provide the life for the majority of the population, especially agriculture, is not growing as fast, because there has not been sufficient investment in technology so that productivity in agriculture, the mainstay of the livelihood of the population, is actually seeing a decline in productivity. And that is true for Nigeria as well for many other countries.

So the challenge for Nigeria is how to harness these oil resources so that the growth in revenue that's coming from oil can actually trigger expansion in other sectors outside of the oil sector.


http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=10954

Phder: Nigerians can be compared to a really sad individual, who thinks drinking pure table sugar can help heal his sadness. Obviously he's going to die faster; not of sadness but of some other disease associated with high sugar intake.

ogbonoeba:

Bros, na diabetic coma you dey describe...Diabetic coma...

chineloSA:

Do u stammer even when you write?

ogbonoeba:

Have you taken your school cert yet?

beulahland82: I found a site working as a forum, compare it with nairaland the link is http://forum.vazebook.com/ hahahahaha,
Common. Guys and gurls check it out.

beulahland82: I found a site working as a forum, compare it with nairaland the link is http://forum.vazebook.com/ hahahahaha,
Common. Guys and gurls check it out.

ogbonoeba: Some Ingredients for economic success in Nigeria

1. Near constant electrical output (even 80% will be better)
2. Better roads
3. Curtail oil theft
4. Severly punish corrupt politicians...minimum of 10 years in jail
5. Decentralize the police force and pay them a living wage
6. Invest in agriculture - Nigeria imports too much food. We can feed ourselves
7. Establish an income tax system - all emerging markets have them

Raggedy_Ann:


How do you figure? Are there other statistics that could enlighten us? According to the stats on which the Prof bases his opinion, there was an 8 percent growth in the oil sector and a corresponding 6.6 percent growth in the economy. This means that other sectors (which we should identify) are not growing at the same rate and thus pulling back the average.

The point we should be focused on is the fact that despite evident economic growth, unemployment is still on the rise. As already pointed out, we should invest hard in sectors that have the potential to create more jobs.

It is a good thing that we are experiencing growth, the obvious problem though is that this growth is driven by the oil sector which is not sustainable. The oil revenue should be used to grow other sectors like agriculture and tourism.

The Monetary Policy Committee Meeting of the Central Bank of Nigeria,CBN has noted that non oil sector has remained the major driver of growth while the contribution of the oil sector continues to slide downwards.

Said the communiqué of the MPC meeting released today “The non-oil sector remained the major driver of growth recording 7.91 per cent in contrast to the growth rate of -0.68 per cent for the oil sector during the second quarter of 2013. The drivers of the non-oil sector growth remained agriculture; wholesale and retail trade; and services which contributed 1.72, 1.47, and 2.90 per cent, respectively. The Committee noted the continued decline in the contribution of the oil sector to overall GDP and the underlying factors responsible for this state of affairs.

http://newsdiaryonline.com/contribution-of-oil-sector-to-gdp-continues-to-slide-cbn/


“These factors include; sustained oil theft which has led to a decline in output volumes in the face of an uncertain international oil market and price signals, weak infrastructure, and downside risks due to discovery of shale oil and the emergence of other African oil exporters competing for Nigeria’s traditional oil market,”the committee said.

iterator25: this is Why I support abortion

Rossikk:

Dude, if you have no food to eat why not go to your village and farm instead of assuming others are all hungry failures like you?

Or is your village experiencing a famine?

Or you can get a bowl and beg at your local bus stop. Even that will get you enough money to feed yourself. So what is your problem?

Ode oshi (cannot feed himself).

Typical Nigerian living in denial...

Rossikk:

Dude, if you have no food to eat why not go to your village and farm instead of assuming others are all hungry failures like you?

Or is your village experiencing a famine?

Or you can get a bowl and beg at your local bus stop. Even that will get you enough money to feed yourself. So what is your problem?

Ode oshi (cannot feed himself).

ckkris: Adeshina is obviously working to meet domestic demand, first. Rice, Fish, and for the first time in history, YAM harvests of 2012 were in the market until September 2013. If this outcome is achieved in five consecutive years, Ade's plans B & C may become visible.

souldust: the biggest disadvantage of the internet is that it is sooooooo accessable that even the most unworthy, less developed, daft, dump, self hate and ignorant man has access to it.

Carry on with your legendary ignorance all of you talking down Nigeria.

voltron:

Carry on with your blissful ignorance hiding your dirty pants in under your shirt.. you forget all the murdered children of religious conflicts,all teh scandalous bribery cases, all the oil subsidy theft, all the dead pensioners who maina killed, all the good leaders who were assassinated so that you can vote the bad leaders in, all the 11 million uneducated children who can never get a basic education but are the same size as the population of tunisia.. you are so blissfully ignorant it would have been better if you were stripped naked and a carrot stuck in your behind, forced to crawl across 3rd mainland bridge.. you would not know the difference anyway