Africa’s Biggest Economy: Nigeria Set To Overtake South Africa – Budget Minister Assures

Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma, who stated this in Abuja on Thursday when a delegation of the Infrastructure Public-Private Partnership Summit Group paid him a courtesy visit, added that the economic programmes and policies the government is putting in place will ensure that Nigeria reclaims the top spot.

Nigeria has been holding the position until South Africa displaced her.

The minister suggested that the recent ranking placing Nigeria in second place can indicates that the country’s economy can bounce back through hardwork.

Recall, that earlier this month, South Africa’s economy overtook Nigeria as Africa’s biggest economy in dollar terms.

According to a Bloomberg report, South Africa’s currency, rand, gained 16 per cent against the US currency since the start of 2016, while in contrast, Nigeria’s naira has lost more than a third of its value.

Bloomberg, which used the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at the end of 2015 published by the International Monetary Fund, also noted that the size of South Africa’s economy was $301 billion at the rand’s current exchange rate, while Nigeria’s GDP was put at $296 billion.

Udoma, however maintained that the ratings should spur Nigerians into working hard to rebuild the economy which was once a global attraction, stressing that the government is doing all it can to eliminate all bottlenecks in a bid to attract foreign investors.

“No need to panic over recent rating that Nigeria is no longer biggest economy in terms of GDP in Africa. What this simply means is that we have work to do to make our economy bounce back”, he said.

“This should motivate us to work harder to be the biggest economy again. I believe we have what it takes, in terms of resources, capacity, enterprise among other things to become number one again.”

The minister further stated that Nigeria requires about $25 billion foreign investment to boost the economy and create jobs.

He explained that the funds will be used to finance priority projects, adding that ministry had developed the National Integrated Infrastructure Master Plan (NIIMP) for accelerated infrastructure development in the country for the next 30 year.

“The fund seeks to raise the stock of infrastructure from the current level of 20 per cent to 25 per cent of the GDP to at least 70 per cent by 2043.

“A total investment outlay of 3.05 trillion dollars will be required for the implementation of NIIMP.

“The investment will be geared towards meetings infrastructure requirements of the major sectors of the economy.

“The NIIMP captured Energy, Transport, Information Communication Technology, Agriculture, Water, Mining, Housing, Social Infrastructure, Security and Vital Registration sectors,” Udo-Udoma said.

He called on all Nigerians, especially the private sector, to participate, pointing out that the implementation of the NIIMP required collaboration of stakeholders, and should not be left for the government alone.

Abubakar Mahmoud, Chairman, Infrastructure PPP Summit Group, who spoke earlier said that the essence for the creation of the group was for the private sector to pull resources together to assist the government, as the drive for infrastructural development cannot be done by the government alone.