New Delhi: Nigeria has recently made headlines – and for a very intriguing reason. Africa’s most populous country has accomplished something that even countries like the United States, China, and Japan have never been able to do.
The country’s GDP – Gross Domestic Product – shot up by as much as 30 percent overnight. According to the reports, Nigeria changed the method to calculate the GDP. The base year for calculating GDP in the country has been updated from 2010 to 2019.
The Nigerian government has made this change after almost a decade, which has resulted in a noticeable jump in the GDP figures.
Here are some of the key details:
- Nigeria’s GDP for 2024 is N372.82 trillion, which is approximately 244 billion dollars.
- The amount is much higher than the World Bank’s estimated 187.76 billion dollars.
- Following this recent change, Nigeria has now become the fourth-largest economy in the African continent, after South Africa, Egypt, and Algeria.
- The government here has announced that sectors like the digital services industry, pension funds, and the informal labor market have now been included in the GDP.
It is important to note that the developing countries often adopt this method regularly to portray a larger size of their economy. Experts also stated that such changes are necessary every ten years.