Africa Top Success Ils font l'Afrique
Africa Top Success announced it. It is now official. Nigeria is the first economic power of Africa. The country of Goodluck Jonathan has just outclassed South Africa after the change calculation of its GDP. The Gross domestic product of Nigeria is estimated at 510 billion dollars against 384 billion for South Africa. If the new position of Nigeria does not is not a surprise, it is not the same for the gap that separates it from South Africa.
Several analysts predicted its jump over. However, nobody imagined its scale (95 %). Nigeria partially owes this surprising increase of its GDP to services. Indeed, the part of the services in the GDP progressed to 53 % against 29 % previously. Nigierian Cinema, « Nollywood« , also participated in the ranking (1,2 %).
« Nigeria has become the biggest economy in Africa in term of GDP and has become the 26th biggest economy in the world (…) On the basis of per capita income, Nigeria is arrives in the 121st position in the world ranking », exclaimed the Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, quoted by AFP.
In a country that counts 170 million inhabitants among whom 64 % lives below the poverty line, this piece of news is not so happy. This new ranking of Nigeria will not bring change in the housewife’s shopping basket. The country that has not revised the techniques of calculation of its GDP since 1990 has just made an update which will not have impact on the population. On the other hand, the piece of news could frustrate the poorest people who will realize that the country nevertheless progressed on macroeconomic level.
Original text by: Roger ADZAFO
