Nigerian economy becomes biggest in Africa

Nigeria has outstripped South Africa as Africa's biggest economy, with a recalculated worth of $US510 billion.

Officials say Nigeria's recalculated economy is worth $US510 billion ($A554 billion), by far the biggest in Africa and easily surpassing that of previous continental titleholder, South Africa, at $US353 billion.

Figures announced on 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 $US292 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, while today, Nigeria has 100 million cell phone users.


Share
1 min read

Published

Updated

Source: AAP

Tags

Share this with family and friends


Get SBS News daily and direct to your Inbox

Sign up now for the latest news from Australia and around the world direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to SBS’s terms of service and privacy policy including receiving email updates from SBS.

Download our apps
SBS News
SBS Audio
SBS On Demand

Listen to our podcasts
An overview of the day's top stories from SBS News
Interviews and feature reports from SBS News
Your daily ten minute finance and business news wrap with SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves.
A daily five minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability
Get the latest with our News podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.

Watch on SBS
SBS World News

SBS World News

Take a global view with Australia's most comprehensive world news service
Watch the latest news videos from Australia and across the world