Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa has added 89 per cent to its Gross Domestic Product (GDP), now worth USD510 billion to soar past South Africa, worth USD350 billion to become the continent’s economic powerhouse. But, critics have cut their celebration short, arguing that size is not everything as the new giant remains one of the poorest and one of the most corrupt countries in the world with vast violations of human rights and widespread civil strife.
In a recent economic report, Nigeria’s rise is compared to Chinese’s obsession with the size of her GDP – it recommends that it should focus actively in transforming its economic development model and shifting attention from merely GDP to the quality and efficiency of economic growth in hopes of maintaining the balance between quality and quantity.