(CNN)— Nigeria is set to be the first African
country with an economy larger than $1 trillion,
according to the latest projections from the U.S.
Department of Agriculture.

Africa's most populous nation, which recently
held peaceful elections , revamped its gross
domestic product data in 2014 and pulled ahead
of South Africa to become the continent's largest
economy with a GDP of $469 billion. Between
now and 2030, experts predict annual growth
rates as high as 7.92% resulting in a GDP of
$1.05 trillion.

"A lot of Nigeria's growth will come from
agriculture and services are huge in Nigeria,"
says Charles Robertson, global chief economist
at Renaissance Capital. He adds that he actually
expects the country's GDP to reach $1 trillion
before 2030. "Banking, retail, telecoms and
Nollywood has been an explosive growth story in
past couple of years."

As a source of employment for 70% of Nigeria's
population in 2013, the country's $56 billion
agriculture sector currently accounts for 24% of
GDP and the country's minister of agriculture,
Akinwumi Adesina, has said "the new millionaires
of Nigeria will be in agriculture."

Relative view
These are huge numbers by Nigerian and African
standards -- however, they look less impressive
next to others from around the world.
By 2030, the U.S. economy is expected to reach
$24.8 trillion, China's GDP will approach $22.2
trillion and Indian output will be at the $6.6
trillion mark.

African view
Closest behind Nigeria, when it comes to
economic clout on the continent in 2030, is
South Africa with a projected GDP of $810.6
billion.
Given that power shortages have caused the
country to cut its economic growth forecasts for
2015 by 0.5%, this will be a key area of the
country's infrastructure which number crunchers
will be watching.

In February, during his first full budget speech,
finance minister Nhlanhla Nene identified the
need to focus on the country's power crisis,
saying "electricity constraints hold back growth
in manufacturing and mining, inhibit investment
in housing and raise costs for businesses and
households."

Egypt is due to follow South Africa, with the
continent's third largest GDP of $471.5 billion.
The U.S Department of Agriculture foresees
annual grow rates consistently surpassing 4.2%
in the next 15 years and Renaissance Capital is
bullish on the North Africa country.
"Only 10% of Egyptians have bank accounts,"
says Robertson, "so we can image banking will
be a big story [In Egypt] in the coming years."
Problem with projections

While these numbers suggest significant growth
is on the cards, projections for African economies
have been revised in the past.
"Forecasting tends to be optimistic, especially in
underdeveloped countries," says Morten Jerven,
author of 'Poor Numbers: How We Are Misled by
African Development Statistics and What to Do
about It' .

"Models often over-predict GDP and under-
predict inflation...U.S. Department of Agriculture
is predicting a stable growth pattern for Nigeria,
and that is curious given that we have not seen
that pattern in the past."

edition.cnn.com/2015/04/27/business/nigeria-gdp-1-trillion-2030/index.html

Story for the gods, biggest consuming economy and not biggest producing economy like china and US. We are not fools and can not be fooled by this current administration again !!!

sammyj:
Story for the gods, biggest consuming economy and not biggest producing economy like china and US. We are not fools and can not be fooled by this current administration again !!!

The current administration has done well in the area of agricultural development. The incoming government need to consolidate on it, diversify the economy, reduce corruption, improve electricity supply and start refining our crude oil locally. If these are done, we will even surpass the above projections in no time.

That's the good work of GEJ, he transformed Nigeria economy.

Won't happen under Buhari.

Actually, those growth statistics will be adjusted by the end of 2015, I see Nigeria growing more than 10 to 12% under the incoming government of GMB especially when leaks are sealed at the oil industry, FIRS and Customs, plus with higher investment in the Agric, transport and construction industries.

Standard of living..... 0%
Masses.....poor
Economy..... Large


It is an incoherent factor that is coherently nonsensical

Once power and security are fixed that figure can easily be beaten.

Nigerians and delusion. Some countries have power and security but with a GDP of less than 500 billion dollars.

Sweetguy25:
Nigerians and delusion. Some countries have power and security but with a GDP of less than 500 billion dollars.

And those are the ones you would want to compare yourself with, what a retrogressive bunch you lot are. State the population of those countries and the sort of resources they have, then tell us why we should be using them as the benchmark and not countries like Brazil or Indonesia or Singapore? Elections have come and gone and progress is here to stay, get over it already, what a child . . .

I pity Nigerians if buhari enter our economy will fall......

The feeling that a cattle rearer will be ruling Nigeria when there are many educated nd qualified people for the job

SkyBlue1:


And those are the ones you would want to compare yourself with, what a retrogressive bunch you lot are. State the population of those countries and the sort of resources they have, then tell us why we should be using them as the benchmark and not countries like Brazil or Indonesia or Singapore? Elections have come and gone and progress is here to stay, get over it already, what a child . . .

You should compare yourself with your mates and not with countries more advanced than you by every standard. Population doesn't mean shIt if almost half of the population are illiterates with poor standards of living and human development.

I never said progress won't be made. We will make progress but it will be so slow that it will seem negligible.

Ok remove the missing 20bn dollars from this amount...980bn dollars