Nigeria GDP projected to increase as government plans to rebase economy

Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is projected to rise amid plans by the Nigerian government to rebase the economy to 2018/19.

Sunday Ichedi, spokesperson of the National Bureau of Statistics, on Wednesday made the plan to rebase the economy known, in a statement announcing the bureau’s commencement of the National Business Sample Survey.

Mr Ichedi told Premium Times by phone afterwards that

the new plan would see the statistics bureau move to 2018/19 in its adopted price benchmark for calculating the GDP, which could in effect increase the size of the Nigerian economy and its real GDP.

The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the total market value of all final goods and services produced in a country in a given year, equal to total consumer, investment, government spending plans and the value of exports less the value of imports.

GDP rebasing is the process of replacing old base year price structure in compiling volume measures of GDP with a new or more recent base year, usually at five years average interval.

Mr Ichechi said the new business survey would provide sectoral data at national and state levels and determine the structure of the Nigerian economy. It will also help policy makers determine the sectors that drive the economy and those that require government intervention to improve them, he explained.

“The survey which is done in collaboration with the World Bank would cover the 36 states of the Federation, including the Federal Capital Territory,” he said.

The World Bank puts the value of the Nigerian economy, the biggest in Africa, as of 2019 at $448.12 billion, up from $397.19 billion in 2018.

– Premium Times