Nigeria’s GDP to increase as govt plans to rebase economy

Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is projected to rise following plans by the Nigerian government to rebase the economy to 2018/19.

Spokesperson of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Sunday Ichedi made the plan known in a statement on Wednesday.

The statement also announced the bureau’s commencement of the National Business Sample Survey.

GDP rebasing is the process of replacing old base year price structure in compiling volume measures of GDP with a new or more recent base year, usually at five years average interval.

Mr Ichechi said the new business survey would provide sectoral data at national and state levels and determine the structure of the Nigerian economy. It will also help policy makers determine the sectors that drive the economy and those that require government intervention to improve them, he explained.

“The survey which is done in collaboration with the World Bank would cover the 36 states of the Federation, including the Federal Capital Territory,” he said.

The World Bank puts the value of the Nigerian economy, the biggest in Africa, as of 2019 at $448.12 billion, up from $397.19 billion in 2018.