Overview: The oil-rich Nigerian economy continues to be hobbled by poor macroeconomic management that has resulted in an average annual inflation rate of 60%, a growing foreign debt, and a worsening balance of payments. A deepening political crisis in 1993 has compounded the government's failure to reign in deficit spending, which prevents it from reaching an agreement with the IMF and its bilateral creditors on debt relief. Investment in both oil and non-oil sector industry has been undermined by corruption and squandered on white elephant projects that have failed to generate diversification or new employment.

National product: GDP - purchasing power equivalent - $95.1 billion (1993 est.)

National product real growth rate: 4.1% (1992)

National product per capita: $1,000 (1993 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 60% (1992 est.)

Unemployment rate: 28% (1992 est.)

Budget:
revenues: $9 billion
expenditures: $10.8 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA (1992 est.)

Exports: $11.9 billion (f.o.b., 1992)
commodities: oil 95%, cocoa, rubber
partners: US 54%, EC 23%

Imports: $8.3 billion (c.i.f., 1992)
commodities: machinery and equipment, manufactured goods, food and animals
partners: EC 64%, US 10%, Japan 7%

External debt: $29.5 billion (1992)

Industrial production: growth rate 7.7% (1991); accounts for 43% of GDP, including petroleum

Electricity:
capacity: 4,740,000 kW
production: 8.3 billion kWh
consumption per capita: 70 kWh (1991)

Industries: crude oil and mining - coal, tin, columbite; primary processing industries - palm oil, peanut, cotton, rubber, wood, hides and skins; manufacturing industries - textiles, cement, building materials, food products, footwear, chemical, printing, ceramics, steel

Agriculture: accounts for 35% of GDP and half of labor force; inefficient small-scale farming dominates; once a large net exporter of food and now an importer; cash crops - cocoa, peanuts, palm oil, rubber; food crops - corn, rice, sorghum, millet, cassava, yams; livestock - cattle, sheep, goats, pigs; fishing and forestry resources extensively exploited

Illicit drugs: passenger and cargo air hub for West Africa; facilitates movement of heroin en route from Southeast and Southwest Asia to Western Europe and North America; increasingly a transit route for cocaine from South America intended for West European, East Asian, and North American markets

Economic aid:
recipient: US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-89), $705 million; Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1970-89), $3 billion; Communist countries (1970-89), $2.2 billion

Currency: 1 naira (N) = 100 kobo
Exchange rates: naira (N) per US$1 - 21.886 (November 1993), 17.298 (1992), 9.909 (1991), 8.038 (1990), 7.3647 (1989)

Fiscal year: calendar year

NOTE: The information regarding Nigeria on this page is re-published from the 1995 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Nigeria Economy 1995 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Nigeria Economy 1995 should be addressed to the CIA.