As Nigerians continue to reflect on the  declaration of the country’s economy as  the biggest in Africa and the 26th largest in the world the Managing Director of Cowry Asset Management Ltd., Mr Johnson Chukwu, says with the continued dearth of basic necessities of life, the increased size of the GDP does not make much meaning to Nigerians. He spoke to Chinweoke Akoma in Lagos.

Beggars protesting

With the rebasing of Nigerian GDP, the total monetary value of final output of goods and services produced in the economy in 2013 was stated at N80.2trillion or $509.9billion, an increase of 89.2 percent over the previous estimate of about $269billion.

The new Nigerian GDP had given the country’s economic managers some bragging rights having thumbed the South African economy which hitherto was the biggest economy in Africa. While the Government may be right to gloat over the fact that Nigerian economy is now the biggest in Africa and the 26th biggest economy in the World, these facts do not necessarily affect the living standards of the citizens.

For Nigerian citizens, what counts is the availability of jobs, the size of their personal income, access to basic amenities such as light, water, transport infrastructure, security, etc. With the continued dearth of these basic necessities of life, the increased size of the GDP does not make much meaning to Nigerians. The existence of abject poverty in the midst of a big and growing economy seem to be a paradox.

The reason for this anomaly can however be traced to the structure of the economy which is skewed in favour of the services sector – 52 per cent share of the GDP. The dominance of the services sector can be blamed on the absence of basic infrastructure which has made real sector economic engagement unattractive.

With the dominance of the services sector, it is obvious why the economy cannot create jobs. To address this anomaly, the government needs to improve on the factors that impact on the country’s competitiveness and easy of doing business.