Country Profile
From The Report: Nigeria 2015
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Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country, the continent’s largest oil producer and a top destination for foreign investment. As of April 2014, Nigeria is now the continent’s largest economy as well, as a result of an overdue revision of its GDP. The revision added a whopping 89% to GDP, while also revealing the true diversity of the economy, with thriving industries such as agriculture, telecoms and technology, music and film, retail and trade, and services. However, as the economy continues to grow and diversify away from its reliance on hydrocarbons sector – which accounts for more than two-thirds of government revenues – the country’s complexities have become more pressing. Nigeria is in the midst of its third and longest attempt at sustained democratic rule, with the latest landmark coming with the 2015 presidential election, which saw the country’s first peaceful handover of power in more than three decades. The March poll, which involved a new biometric identity system, saw Muhammadu Buhari, a candidate from the All Progressives Congress (APC), an umbrella opposition party formed in 2013 by a coalition of smaller parties, eke out a narrow victory over Goodluck Jonathan, the incumbent and candidate for the governing People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

This chapter contains interviews with Kadré Désiré Ouédraogo, President, ECOWAS Commission; James Duddridge, Parliamentary Undersecretary of State, British Foreign & Commonwealth Office; and Georg Wilfried Schmidt, Regional Director for Sub-Saharan Africa and the Sahel, German Federal Foreign Office

Articles from this Chapter

Overview

Nigeria’s economy growing despite various challenges
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There is no shortage of superlatives to describe Nigeria. It is Africa’s most populous country, the continent’s largest oil producer and a top destination for foreign investment. As of April 2014, Nigeria is now the continent’s largest economy as well, as a result of an overdue revision in its GDP calculation. The revision added a whopping 89% to GDP, while also revealing the true diversity of the economy, with thriving industries such as agriculture, telecommunications and technology, music…

Overview

Democratic transfer of power in Nigeria as the opposition wins the 2015 presidential elections
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Nigeria is in the midst of its third and longest attempt at sustained democratic rule, with the latest landmark coming with the 2015 presidential election, which saw the country’s first peaceful handover of power in more than three decades. The March poll, which involved a new biometric identity system, saw Muhammadu Buhari, a candidate from the All Progressives Congress (APC), an umbrella opposition party formed in 2013 by a coalition of smaller parties, eke out a narrow victory over Goodluck…

Interview

Kadré Désiré Ouédraogo, President, ECOWAS Commission: Interview
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Interview: Kadré Désiré Ouédraogo How will the ECOWAS-EU economic partnership agreement (EPA) benefit West African states? KADRE DESIRE OUÉDRAOGO: According to the Cotonou Agreement, EPAs are intended to foster the smooth and gradual integration of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) into the global economy, with regard for their political choices and development priorities. This will promote their sustainable development and contribute to poverty eradication as well as…

Analysis

Enhanced integration in Nigeria aimed at boosting regional trade
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As the continent’s largest economy, Nigeria plays a central role in West Africa both diplomatically and economically, and nowhere is this more evident than in the influence it exerts within ECOWAS – West Africa’s economic and trade grouping. ECOWAS was founded in 1975 and its charter revised in 1993 with the mission of promoting economic integration through monetary and economic unity and creating a single trading bloc. Today the group is composed of 15 member states, and has expanded its role…

Analysis

Measures to address security issues in Nigeria’s north
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Nigeria’s rich ethnic and religious diversity, coupled with its resource wealth and poor governance, has at times contributed to localised incidences of violence, ranging from an insurgency in the oil-producing Delta region starting in the 1990s to tensions between villages in the country’s “middle belt”, where Muslim and Christian populations regularly mix. Rarely are identity issues the sole factor behind such problems, and just as frequently economic concerns, whether grazing rights or…

Interview

James Duddridge, Parliamentary Undersecretary of State, British Foreign & Commonwealth Office: Interview
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Interview: James Duddridge What is the most common misconception of Nigeria as a destination for investment? JAMES DUDDRIDGE: There is a general conception that the risks in Nigeria are often too high to do business. Yet Diageo, PwC, GlaxoSmithKline, Unilever and PZ Cussons are all examples of well-established UK blue-chip firms in Nigeria. We should therefore be clear on the opportunities it presents. Nigeria is the world’s 23rdlargest economy and predicted to be in the top 20 by 2050.…

Interview

Georg Wilfried Schmidt, Regional Director for Sub-Saharan Africa and the Sahel, German Federal Foreign Office: Interview
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Interview: Wilfried Schmidt What challenges do small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face between West Africa and Europe? WILFRIED SCHMIDT: Although German SMEs produce for markets at the national, regional and international level, most firms generate the lion’s share of their income in national and regional markets – in particular, neighbouring EU member countries. Producing for export is naturally more challenging than domestic production, as you need to understand both your local market…