The recent re-basing of Nigeria’s economy that showed indices of a strongest economy in Africa, overtaking South Africa, has raised Nigeria’s profile among international investors. However, some analysts have cautioned on celebration of the indices.
They say with the re-basing and other indicators such as the largest population in Africa and debt-to-GDP ratio down to 11 percent for 2013, against 19 percent in 2012, more international investors would begin to look towards Nigeria. When this happens, more jobs would be created and the GDP would continue to rise.
Marcel Roach, Schneider Electric country president for Anglophone West Africa, told BusinessDay that before the re-basing, “we are already targeting Nigeria as major investment market in Africa.” Today, Africa is the continent of the future and when we speak of Africa if you are not in Nigeria, you are not in Africa, he said, saying the re-basing has confirmed the confidence on Nigeria’s economy. Schneider is a global company with operations in over 100 countries worldwide.
Analysts are of the opinion that Nigeria could deliberately leverage the opportunity to re-brand Nigeria among the international community who has seen Nigeria in negative perspective before now.
The result of the re-basing is a good news but it depends on how the managers of the economy handle it to impact on the image of the nation, Jenkins Alumona, a public relations practitioner, said, saying he was also particular of the improvement on the quality of life of Nigerians as a good branding factor.
In his view, John Ehiguese, CEO of MediaCraft, said ordinarily “any re-branding effort should be tied to big issue like the re-basing of Nigeria,” cautioning that “the size of the economy is not enough for the re-branding effort. Quality of life is a major ingredient.”
Tola Bademosi, CEO of BD Consult, agreed that the re-basing will play up international attraction to Nigeria, but cautioned that government needed to put certain infrastructure in place to reflect the economy as the strongest economy in Africa.
“It is not how the GDP is rising, but how the economy is doing on the back of amenities to sustain the economy,” Bademosi said, stating that key infrastructure were necessary to drive the GDP, regretting that manufacturing and agriculture, which are the engine of the economy, were not performing well due to epileptic infrastructure.
In the re-calculated GDP, sectors such as e-commerce, mobile phones and ‘Nollywood’ film industry performed well. Also, the growing attention of international investors induced Nigeria to re-calculate its GDP, which it has not done since 1990, but Bademosi said the nation needed to wake the manufacturing sector for more contribution to the economy.
Daniel Obi
