THE Federal Government may have been serenading in the dreamland if it believes that the country will realise its goal of becoming one of the largest 20 economies in the world by year 2020. This blunt assessment came Monday from the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) in Abuja, at the opening of this year’s summit of the economic experts. The Director-General of NESG, Frank Nweke Jnr, said rather the 20th slot on the economic development chart would go to Saudi Arabia.

Nweke made the observation while presenting the 2012 Nigerian Economic Scorecard at the three-day 18th NESG, with the theme:, “Deregulation, Cost of Governance and Nigeria’s Economic Prospects.’’ The Vision 20:2020 is aimed at making Nigeria one of the top 20 economies by year 2020.

“Based on our projections, using the IMF World Economic Outlook database, our findings are that “Saudi Arabia will be the 20th largest economy in the world by 2020, with a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $1.2 trillion in Purchasing Power Parity (PPP).” “Nigeria, on the other hand would be the 27th largest economy in the world by 2020, with a GDP of US$864 billion in PPP; falling short of being the 20th largest economy by a GDP of US$316 billion,’’ NESG boss said. - http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=106569:attainment-of-vision-202020-a-mirage-says-nesg&catid=31:business&Itemid=562