I congratulate President Goodluck Jonathan, Ph. D., GCFR, the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Statistician-General of Nigeria and Chief Executive of the National Bureau of Statistics, Dr. Yemi Kale, and indeed all Nigerians on the successful rebasing of our nation's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Consequently, Nigeria's Nominal GDP was US$510,000,000,000 (Five hundred and ten billion U.S. Dollars) in 2013.
The rebasing process took several months of hard work and has been affirmed and endorsed as accurate by both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The rebasing is very significant not just because Nigeria's GDP is now the largest in Africa and the 26th largest economy in the world, but also because major sectors which had been excluded (like our movie industry: "Nollywood" which accounts for 1.2% of the economy) have now been included. The Services Sector is now the largest accounting for over 51% of the economy. Services includes transport, professional services, banking and finance, telecommunications, entertainment etc. In other words, the computation of our GDP is now more accurate.
Accuracy in national economic data cannot be over-emphasized. It has long been challenging for private individuals, businessmen, companies, NGOs, government ministries, departments and agencies, international investors and multi-lateral agencies to appraise Nigeria's economy and plan adequately due to the non-reliability of macroeconomic statistics. Various figures were bandied around as Nigeria's GDP depending on the whims (and caprices!) and motives of the individual or group making the estimate.
GDP rebasing is not an end in itself. It is a means to an end. The end being the economic wellbeing of the average Nigerian. With the rebased GDP, our Per Capita Income is now $2,668 and the 121st in the world. We still have much work to do to increase our national wealth and ensure that the standard of living of our people us greatly improved. Our Human Development Indices (HDI) prove this point. We must improve on health care, access to clean water, life expectancy, maternal mortality, infant mortality, literacy, quality of education, employment generation and poverty eradication.
But we are making progress. We will get there.
God bless Nigeria!
Nigeria di fure!!
The rebasing process took several months of hard work and has been affirmed and endorsed as accurate by both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The rebasing is very significant not just because Nigeria's GDP is now the largest in Africa and the 26th largest economy in the world, but also because major sectors which had been excluded (like our movie industry: "Nollywood" which accounts for 1.2% of the economy) have now been included. The Services Sector is now the largest accounting for over 51% of the economy. Services includes transport, professional services, banking and finance, telecommunications, entertainment etc. In other words, the computation of our GDP is now more accurate.
Accuracy in national economic data cannot be over-emphasized. It has long been challenging for private individuals, businessmen, companies, NGOs, government ministries, departments and agencies, international investors and multi-lateral agencies to appraise Nigeria's economy and plan adequately due to the non-reliability of macroeconomic statistics. Various figures were bandied around as Nigeria's GDP depending on the whims (and caprices!) and motives of the individual or group making the estimate.
GDP rebasing is not an end in itself. It is a means to an end. The end being the economic wellbeing of the average Nigerian. With the rebased GDP, our Per Capita Income is now $2,668 and the 121st in the world. We still have much work to do to increase our national wealth and ensure that the standard of living of our people us greatly improved. Our Human Development Indices (HDI) prove this point. We must improve on health care, access to clean water, life expectancy, maternal mortality, infant mortality, literacy, quality of education, employment generation and poverty eradication.
But we are making progress. We will get there.
God bless Nigeria!
Nigeria di fure!!
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