NIGERIA BECOMES AFRICA'S BIGGEST ECONOMY

Nigeria has overtaken South Africa as Africa's largest economy after the government announced a long-overdue rebasing of the country's gross domestic product.

The new figures were announced by officials of the Nigerian Bureau of statistics on Sunday. The new calculations took into account some new sectors like telecoms, information technology, and entertainment industries that were negligible or non-existent in 1990. The Nigerian telecommunications sector is clearly the largest in Africa and the film industry alone is now worth 853.9 billion Naira ($5.1 billion) or 1.2 percent of GDP.

According the Finance Ministry, it is a clear indication that the economy was becoming more driven by the service sector. It indicates a clearer picture of Nigeria’s economic landscape, and the significant opportunity for growth and wealth creation in the Nigerian economy.

Nigeria's GDP for 2013 totaled 80.3 trillion naira, which almost doubled its gross domestic product to more than $500bn. Nigeria has been emerging as an investment destination owing to the size of its consumer market and growing capital markets.

The new GDP also moves Nigeria 11 places up to number 26 in the world ahead of countries like Austria with $394.7 billion; Venezuela with $381.26 billion as well as Columbia, Thailand, Denmark, Malaysia and Singapore among others which has $369.6 billion, $$365.96 billion, $$314.88 billion, $274.7 billion and $269.86 billion respectively.

However, Nigeria still faces an immense challenge in terms of infrastructure deficits. Slow ports, bad roads and a lack of electricity are some of the major factors hampering business activity.