Nigeria’s Economy Now The Biggest in Africa As GDP Soars To US$510 Billion, Beating South Africa’s US$353 Billion

Nigeria’s Economy Now The Biggest in Africa
As GDP Soars To US$510 Billion, Beating South
Africa’s US$353 Billion

Officials say Nigeria’s recalculated economy is worth $510
billion, by far the biggest in Africa and easily surpassing
that of previous continental titleholder, South Africa, at $
353 billion.

Figures announced Sunday are the first recount since
1990 of the GDP of Africa’s biggest oil producer but do
little for the 112 million Nigerians scrabbling to survive in
poverty.

The International Monetary Fund had used the 1990 base
to estimate Nigeria’s GDP in 2013 at $292 billion. But
that did not take into account new industries like
telecommunications, information technology, music,
airlines, burgeoning online retail outlets and Nollywood
film production that didn’t exist when the last GDP count
was made in 1990. Then, there were 300,000 landlines.

Today, Nigeria has 100 million cell phone users.