Nigeria, Why Does Your Economic Reality Contradict Your On-Paper Statistics?
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) recently released Nigeria's economic report for the last quarter of 2024. According to the report, there has been an improvement in the country's GDP, but the economic reality tells a different story. In simple terms, a country's GDP (Gross Domestic Product) is like a scorecard showing how much money the country makes from goods (like oil, food, and manufacturing) and services (like exports, healthcare, and airlines). It’s a measure of how rich or poor a country is and how well its economy is performing. If a country's GDP is growing, it typically means the country is making more money. But here’s the contradiction: in a country where inflation is over 35%, where the currency ranks among the weakest in Africa—if not the world—and where more than 65% of citizens live below the poverty line, how is robust GDP growth being calculated? Between December 2023, when GDP growth was reported at 2.3%, and November 2024, when it supposedly ...