Nigeria GDP rebase on Sunday likely to make it Africa's No. 1 (OVERTAKING SOUTH AFRICA)

StillFaggyAF
StillFaggyAF Members Posts: 40,358 ✭✭✭✭✭
edited April 2014 in The Social Lounge
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* Nigeria set to rebase GDP on Sunday

* Likely to overtake South Africa as continent's top economy

* Move seen as positive for investment in Nigeria

* Won't change poverty, infrastructure woes

By Chijioke Ohuocha

LAGOS, April 4 (Reuters) - Nigeria will rebase its GDP on Sunday, the statistics office said, in a move that will boost its estimated size by anything from around 40 to 70 percent and is almost certain to push it ahead of South Africa to become Africa's biggest economy.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) will change the base year for calculating Nigeria's GDP to 2010 from 1990 to reflect changes in the economy of Africa's most populous nation, and more accurately assess the size of its current output.

Most governments overhaul GDP calculations every few years to reflect changes in output and consumption, but Nigeria has not done so since 1990, meaning sectors such as the Internet, telephones and even the "Nollywood" film industry have had to be newly factored in to give a truer picture, sources say.

When Ghana rebased in 2010, output jumped 60 percent. For Nigeria being the continent's number one economy could prove an irresistible magnet for investors.

Nigeria's GDP only needs to go up by a quarter from a current IMF 2013 estimate of $292 billion to hit $365 billion, which would enable it to overtake South Africa, currently estimated by the fund at $353 billion.

"The impact of a rebasing would likely have a positive impact on perceptions ... this would come at time when most investors are fairly downbeat on South Africa," because of its high combined fiscal and current account deficit, London-based economist for CSL Stockbrokers, Alan Cameron, said.

"GROWTH STORY"

Nigeria has been growing as a destination for foreign investors owing to the size of its consumer market and increasingly sophisticated capital markets. Analysts say higher GDP means more consumption per capita, boosting its allure.

"The globe is still looking at the next strong growth story outside China and India, and Africa is on their minds," said Abri Du Plessis, chief investment officer at Gryphon Asset Management, which has investments in Nigeria.

"We are seeing good growth in the ... Nigeria story."

It is already a growing market for consumer goods firms like Nestle, Heineken, Cadbury and Unilever, as well as construction material firms like Lafarge and Dangote Cement, owned by Africa's richest man Aliko Dangote.

Much increased interest would be in manufacturing and service companies, which could further help Africa's top oil producer move away from its over-reliance on the black stuff.

It certainly won't be the wonder cure for Nigeria's economic ills. For one thing, being bigger means expansion will slow.

"The rebasing exercise will result in an increase in the country's market size, but it is likely to lead to a slower rate of real GDP growth," said Ecobank economist Gaimin Nonyane, from its current rate of 7 percent for the past five years.

It will be mixed for Nigeria's fiscal stance as well, improving the debt-to-GDP ratio, currently less than 20 percent, but expose a weaker tax base, so debt investors won't be moved.

"Fixed income investors will probably not pay much attention to the GDP dynamics," said Standard Bank's Samir Gadio.

Despite roaring growth in recent years and a bigger GDP, Nigeria will continue to trail South Africa in terms of basic infrastructure - power and roads - necessary to lift the bulk of its population of 170 million out of absolute poverty.

And its legendary dysfunction - abysmal telephone and Internet quality, clogged roads, ports and airports, obstructive police and reliance on diesel generators for most of its power - mean it won't be replacing South Africa as a hub very soon.

"South Africa is going to stay the entry point for funds into Africa. I don't think (it will move to) Nigeria," Rigaardt Maartens, a portfolio manager at PSG Online Securities, said. (Additional reporting by Helen Nyambura in Johannesburg; Editing by Tim ? and Giles Elgood)
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Comments

  • Melqart
    Melqart Guests, Members Posts: 3,679 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Good ? . Get over their infrastructure and corruption and I'm sure they'll become the flagship for Africa. In my experience most african prodigies come from nigeria, such as britain's smartest family. Once they can capitalize on that potential im sure I'll be great for the worl.
  • Lou Cypher
    Lou Cypher Members Posts: 52,521 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Hey guys. Serious question.

    If people from Nigeria, are called Nigerians.

    What are people from Niger called?
  • Melqart
    Melqart Guests, Members Posts: 3,679 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Lou Cypher wrote: »
    Hey guys. Serious question.

    If people from Nigeria, are called Nigerians.

    What are people from Niger called?

    Their demonym is nigerien. Same ? basically. Got that from wikipedia. It says it under whatever country you look up.
  • rip.dilla
    rip.dilla Members Posts: 17,412 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I don't agree .. .





    The reality on ground doesn't match those optimistic figures.



    I still keep in touch with homebase and if the epileptic power supply isn't fixed how can they even overtake SA as an economic force?
  • cainvelasquez
    cainvelasquez Members Posts: 1,156 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Nigeria should get an invitation to G-20 meetings
  • cainvelasquez
    cainvelasquez Members Posts: 1,156 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited April 2014
    Funny how Mexico is ? but still a major world economy, most likely top 10 in 2020 when these white countries keep failing.
  • Ajackson17
    Ajackson17 Members Posts: 22,501 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited April 2014
  • Meta_Conscious
    Meta_Conscious Members Posts: 26,227 ✭✭✭✭✭
    so this is smoke and mirrors?
    how does this help us?
  • Jungz
    Jungz Members Posts: 991 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I just saw a video like last week of people in Nigeria trying to get applications for a immigration jobs... in a packed STADIUM. So the numbers may look good as far as GDP but ? looks critical on the ground.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwj-5DDHV3M

  • Jungz
    Jungz Members Posts: 991 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited April 2014
    25 people died trying to get apps that day BTW. 700,000 people came for 5,000 job openings.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BvBrE5Dw4s
  • StillFaggyAF
    StillFaggyAF Members Posts: 40,358 ✭✭✭✭✭
    You guys applaud blacks getting into college but not substantial economic growth in a black country....strange
  • rip.dilla
    rip.dilla Members Posts: 17,412 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Funny the IMF was mentioned in that article in the OP when they alongside the World Bank literally crippled Nigeria's economy in the 80's heavily devaluing the national currency (Naira) against the US dollar .. .
  • jono
    jono Members Posts: 30,280 ✭✭✭✭✭
    rip.dilla wrote: »
    I don't agree .. .





    The reality on ground doesn't match those optimistic figures.



    I still keep in touch with homebase and if the epileptic power supply isn't fixed how can they even overtake SA as an economic force?

    And as usual it's an over-reliance on foreign money. "He who has the money makes the rules"...foreigners are ruining Nigeria's ecosystem with oil spills and they have rampant corruption in the government.
  • rip.dilla
    rip.dilla Members Posts: 17,412 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Sion wrote: »
    I've been tryna tell ? bout Nigeria for YEARS in Social Lounge. They found a system that works to churn out their potential. Population of some 150 million people, rich in natural resources that people want (OIL), good politics so far and having money coming in to the country.



    Hardly bruh .. LOL



    The current 'President' now as I post this is ? clueless



    This is a country I spent almost my entire adult life in. I know it better than anyone on here
  • StillFaggyAF
    StillFaggyAF Members Posts: 40,358 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Europe is trying to ? Nigeria up more by funding those Islamic groups
  • rip.dilla
    rip.dilla Members Posts: 17,412 ✭✭✭✭✭
    @Sion I understand your views HOWEVER no world economy can function effectively and properly without uninterrupted electrical power supply which Nigeria hasn't experienced for decades ..

    That should be the first issue addressed before any "GDP" floatation

    I'm afraid all those numbers and figures in the OP are cooked up and will not affect the average man on the streets ..
  • rip.dilla
    rip.dilla Members Posts: 17,412 ✭✭✭✭✭
    You should visit sometime ..



    Its naturally beautiful viewing on road trips ..



    Lagos or Abuja preferrably ..



    .. And move about lowkey
  • Ajackson17
    Ajackson17 Members Posts: 22,501 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I will conquer Nigeria and bring it the fruits that it deserve and conquer the continent. Ya'll shall Call me Emperor Shango the first of his name, protector of the afrikan realm, the ancestors of ancestors, the architect of justice and fairness ruler of flame and storms, higher than the most high, lords of the lords combined could not grasp his depth,
  • kingblaze84
    kingblaze84 Members Posts: 14,288 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Good stuff for Nigeria, lots more work left to be done. Africa isn't out the woods yet but progress is progress. They gotta fix the electricity problem there before more businesses can thrive, less damage must be done to the environment too (oil pollution is ruining so many lives there, people can't even fish for food on many of the coasts)
  • kingblaze84
    kingblaze84 Members Posts: 14,288 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Europe is trying to ? Nigeria up more by funding those Islamic groups


    Which nations in Europe are doing that? I wouldn't put anything past Europeans but those Islamic terror groups seem to hate the West and Nigeria's govt almost equally, because Nigeria's oil production often gets help from Western nations and that oil is polluting much of Nigeria's coasts, causing lots of health and financial problems. If anything, I thought Europe was helping to fund Nigeria's govt
  • MarcusGarvey
    MarcusGarvey Members Posts: 4,569 ✭✭✭✭✭
    How Nigeria Became Africa's Largest Economy Overnight


    Crude oil spills from a pipeline in northwestern Nigeria (Reuters/Afolabi Sotunde)

    Something strange happened in Nigeria on Sunday: The economy nearly doubled, racking up hundreds of billions of dollars, ballooning to the size of the Polish and Belgian economies, and breezing by the South African economy to become Africa's largest. As days go, it was a good one.

    It was, in fact, a miracle borne of statistics: It had been 24 years since Nigerian authorities last updated their approach to calculating gross domestic product (GDP), a process known as "rebasing" that wealthy countries typically carry out every five years. When the Nigerian government finally did it this week, the country's GDP—the market value of all finished goods and services produced in a country—soared to $510 billion.

    To celebrate the occasion, Nigeria's National Bureau of Statistics released a pretty entertaining PowerPoint presentation—an admixture of sober economic pronouncements and clip art. It includes this depiction of the long road to $510 billion:


    National Bureau of Statistics
    Nigeria's overnight transformation raises two distinct but interconnected questions. First: What do we miss about countries when we don't have accurate economic data about them—and what are the practical implications of that blindness?

    In computing its GDP all these years, Nigeria, incredibly, wasn't factoring in booming sectors like film and telecommunications. The Nigerian movie industry, Nollywood, generates nearly $600 million a year and employs more than a million people, making it the country's second-largest employer after agriculture. As for the telecom industry, consider that there are now some 120 million mobile-phone subscribers in Nigeria, out of a population of 170 million. Nigeria and South Africa are the largest mobile markets in sub-Saharan Africa, and cell-phone use has been exploding in the country:


    Nigerian Communications Commission (Datawrapper)
    Incorporating the film and telecom industries into Nigeria's GDP made a huge difference in the services sector, rendering the country's economy not just bigger but more diversified:


    National Bureau of Statistics (Datawrapper)
    Cases like Nigeria's indicate that "Africa as a whole probably is not as poor as we've long thought," the economist Diane Coyle writes in her great (and well-timed) new book, GDP: A Brief but Affectionate History. "In many African, Asian, and Latin American economies, the GDP calculations take no account of phenomena such as globalization, or the mobile phone revolution in the developing world.... There are fundamental weaknesses with the collection of basic statistics such as what businesses there are, what they are selling, or what goods and services households spend their incomes on. The surveys needed to collect this information are carried out only infrequently.... [O]ne estimate suggests that for twenty years sub-Saharan African economies have been growing three times faster than suggested by the 'official' data."

    And these economic indicators are not mere abstractions—they have real-world consequences. Coyle notes that when Ghana rebased in 2010, its GDP increased by 60 percent, transforming it instantly from a "low-income" country into a "low-middle-income" country. Aid organizations use these categories to determine levels of financial assistance. John Campbell at the Council on Foreign Relations points out that newly rebased Nigeria may now clamor for membership in political groupings like the G-20, the BRICS, and even the UN Security Council.

    But all this brings us to the second question: Are we too obsessed with GDP as a measure of countries' economic strength and health? As Coyle wrote on Monday, this week's GDP overhaul will likely make investors and entrepreneurs more confident in Nigeria. And yet, "Nothing real has changed, the economic problems like poverty and inequality and a poorly-functioning state remain."

    Campbell delves deeper into the economic problems facing individual Nigerians—issues that no amount of rebasing can solve:

    South Africa’s GDP numbers are three times larger than Nigeria’s on a per capita basis. South Africa has a diverse, modern economy, while Nigeria remains heavily dependent on oil.... Further, World Bank president Jim Yong Kim included Nigeria with India, China, Bangladesh, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo as the countries with the largest number of people living in “extreme poverty,” defined as less than $1.25 per day. He went on to say that if you add to those five countries Indonesia, Pakistan, Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Kenya, those ten countries together account for 80 percent of the world’s total “extreme poor.”

    GDP, Coyle writers in her book, is a "made-up entity"—a product of the 1940s "designed for the twentieth-century economy of physical mass production, not for the modern economy of rapid innovation and intangible, increasingly digital, services."

    The good news is that the Nigerian government now has a better system for measuring its economy. The bad news? Knowing Nigeria has a $510-billion economy doesn't reveal a whole lot about the welfare of its citizens.



    http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/04/how-nigeria-became-africas-largest-economy-overnight/360288/



    Doesn't change the fact the Super Eagles are more corrupt than that's acceptable.
  • cainvelasquez
    cainvelasquez Members Posts: 1,156 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited April 2014
    Progress is always good, but Mexico GDP is more than twice as much. And Mexico isn't exactly a first world country.

    To be fair though there are three factors one must consider other than just the GDP.
    1) Distribution of wealth
    2) Black market economy isn't part of GDP numbers
    3) Power purchasing parity.
  • MarcusGarvey
    MarcusGarvey Members Posts: 4,569 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited April 2014
    Progress is always good, but they Mexico GDP is more than twice as much. And Mexico isn't exactly a first world country.

    Proximity to USA helps Mexico
  • MarcusGarvey
    MarcusGarvey Members Posts: 4,569 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Jim O'Neil, the man who coined BRIC acronym says MINT (Mexico Indonesia Nigeria Turkey) got next (as in the way Brazil Russia India China grew like crazy 20 years ago)