Indications that Nigeria’s economy remained structurally defective still have emerged with the latest report by the African Development Bank (AfDB) which rated the country’s industrial Gross Domestic Product (GDP) lowest in Africa.
The report, which is coming on similar negative reports on the nation’s budget accountability and transparency rating, showed that Nigeria’s current Industrial GDP stood at 13.1 percent compared with South Africa’s 44.8 percent.
According to the report by the continent’s foremost development finance institution, South Africa was followed by Egypt, with 30.1 per cent; Cote d’Ivoire, 29 percent; Kenya, 23.3per cent and Ghana 21 per cent. Others are Ethiopia 21 per cent, Cameroon 17.9 percent and Nigeria 13.1
The report titled ‘Industrialise Africa’ covered the top eight countries on the continent and the contribution of industrial Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to their economies.
Overall, the bank reported that despite the improvements recorded by South Africa and some countries in their industrial sectors’ performances, the continent’s industrial GDP remained low still.
The AfDB President, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, said that the bank was already taken some monetary policy measures as well funding interventions in some countries with a view to
boosting the continent’s industrial GDP by 13 percent in 2025 and drive overall GDP from $2.3 trillion to $5.6 trillion.
He said: “To industrialise Africa, the AfDB is committed to mobilising capital, de-risking investments for the private sector, and leveraging capital markets. This is essential for moving Africa’s Industrial agenda forward and for building an Africa of the 21st century must be well positioned to take its place in global value chains.
‘’The bottom line is that we need to produce more and we need to produce better. Most of all, we need to add value to our resources and raw materials, and turn them into processed products,” Adesina added.
Analysts believe that improving the continent’s power and transportation systems as well as bringing interest rates on lending down remains crucial to improving the industrial capacities in most of the economies.
Despite Nigeria’s poor outing in the latest report, there are indications that the country may do better in future surveys in view of the current efforts by the fiscal and monetary authorities to improve power generation, improve credit to MSMEs and enhance the rail and road transport system and tackle inflation rate surge, amongst other measures.
