Depending on who is doing the forecasting, with Nigeria's population continuing to boom and China's population shrinking fast (How Serious Is China's Demographic Doom? Almost Beyond Comprehension), there is the very real possibility that Nigeria will be the second most populous nation on earth. And their economy is nowhere near ready to deliver what economies are supposed to deliver.
If interested see also: "Follow-Up: Three Estimates Of Nigeria's Population and Rank In 75 Years"
First up, from Semafor, February 26:
Nigeria’s ‘hardship’ economy in four charts
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Nigeria’s economy grew at 2.7% last year, the lowest rate since the country’s recession in 2020, according to the state-run National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).The performance came on the back of reduced growth across nearly all sectors of Africa’s largest economy from agriculture and trade to manufacturing and construction. The finance sector was a notable exception. Activity in the oil and mining sectors rebounded after shrinking in 2022.
A change of government last May heralded new policy directions for Nigeria. A years-long petrol subsidy program was ended while a fixed peg for the naira currency against the dollar was scrapped. The period since has been marked by rising prices and a continuously depreciating naira, fueling widespread hardship.
Two main labor unions for government employees plan to hold protests this week. They say the government is yet to implement cost-of-living adjustments agreed to last October as prices rose in response to the subsidy removal.
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Analysts welcomed the Nigerian oil sector’s recovery, marked by a 12% growth in the last three months of the year. But the reduction of the overall economy in dollar terms from $471 billion to $356 billion in 2023 is “bad news” for President Bola Tinubu’s ambitions of a trillion-dollar economy, said Wilson Erumebor, an economist at the Nigeria Economic Summit Group think tank.Here are three other charts that show the state of Nigeria’s economy in 2023....
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Because of the stagflation Nigeria is experiencing capital flight.
Financial Times, February 22:
Nigeria blocks access to crypto exchanges in effort to curb currency slide
Local consumers given only restricted access to markets like Binance and Coinbase
It's a pretty big deal. And speaking of big deals, Nigeria is just the most dramatic example. November 25, 2022:
"Megalopolis: how coastal west Africa will shape the coming century"
As the old-timers used to say, "Pay attention or pay the offer."
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