A Look into Nigeria’s Economy

The Republic of Nigeria, more commonly known as Nigeria is the largest country in Africa and was under the control of Great Britain until 1960 when they gained independence. In 1999 Nigeria returned to a democratic form of government which has worked well for them until just recently when security concerns began to arise due to the presence of the radical Islamist sect, Boko Haram. Nigeria has the continent’s largest population with 173.6 million people and the largest economy as well. Although Nigeria’s economy is the largest in Africa, 61 percent of the residents are reported to survive on less than $1.00 per day with corruption within the government being the main reason for poverty. Nigeria is also the largest oil producer in Africa and the 10th largest oil producer in the world and as of 2009, the Nigerian film industry was the second largest movie producer in the world.

When looking at economic freedom, Nigeria is ranked 120th in the world and 22nd in the Sub-Saharan Africa region and has an Economic Freedom Score of 55.6. The labor force of Nigeria is roughly 54.2 million or 56.1 percent of the population and the unemployment rate is 8%. Nigeria has experienced strong economic growth averaging 6.5 percent within the past ten years and inflation has decreased in recent years to the rate of 8 percent. It is my goal to explore unemployment in Nigeria, the reason for its strong economic growth as well as the improvement and decline in the ten economic freedoms.

The Nigerian economy is very dependent on oil, with 95 percent of generated revenue coming from the oil industry. In an effort to develop a stronger economy the government has begun to focus on other areas such as agriculture, solid mineral development, manufacturing, natural gas and tourism. In recent years, companies such as P&G and Nestle have begun opening