Nigeria is West Africa’s unrivalled economic powerhouse. With a population of over 190 million people and a gross domestic product of over US$380bn,
The effects of the oil crisis highlighted Nigeria’s exposure and vulnerability of the broader economy to external shocks. Feeling the pinch from the oil price shock, Nigeria’s government, which collects about three-quarters of its revenues from oil, acknowledged the need to reduce the economy’s oil dependency, set up a number of initiatives aimed at diversifying the economy.
The Government implemented Policies/intervention aiming at inclusive economic growth and socio-economic development for the people of the Republic of Nigeria.
Industrialisation, manufacturing/producing goods for local consumption and export and boosting-fostering agriculture to meet local and export demands. Reinvigorating its power sector generation and distribution to meet Nigeria’s the medium and long term power needs, owing to an increase in industrialization- manufacturing and providing the enabling and best environment for businesses both foreign and local to participate and profit from Nigeria’s business opportunities as it diversifies from crude oil exports as its main source of revenue.
Several measures and interventions have been taken simultaneously all strategically designed to reinvigorate, stimulate, and sustain growth in every other sector of the economy save oil and gas. In this regard, intervention initiatives encompass real sector programmes, particularly, agriculture, small and medium enterprises, infrastructure, and youth empowerment. Expanding and intensifying Nigeria’s industrial and agricultural manufacturing / production includes the creation of special industrial free trade/ economic zones in Nigeria. In this vision and mission Nigeria is implementing over 3 trillion naira ($8.3 billion) of work and projects toward eliminating its infrastructure deficit, leading to Nigeria’s largest capital spending with the construction of power stations, road, and rail projects, which is catalytic in connecting people, goods, and opportunities all in economic sectors.
These initiatives have impacted positively employment, food security, and power generation, transmission, and distribution.
There is now ample evidence of reductions in the country’s annual imports bill and increased non-oil exports. The agricultural interventions programme has supported more than 1.5 million farmers and across all the 36 States of Nigeria, diversification of commodities etc. and led to the creation of over 2.5 million jobs across the agricultural value chain.
From this diversification story, Nigeria is emerging as a financial services, technology, and electronic payments powerhouse, establishing itself as one of the hottest FinTech hubs.
Nigeria is also home to the most lucrative telecoms market in Africa, which is growing at twice the African average. The explosion of industries such as the mobile telecommunications market and the unparalleled success of foreign companies continues to demonstrate that in Nigeria potential can be turned into reality.
Goldman Sachs also identified Nigeria as one of its 11 countries, with a high potential of becoming, the world’s largest economies in the 21st century. For all the mentioned reasons and many more, Nigeria is certainly an attractive international investment destination.
