The Response Of The Nigerian Economy To Policy Variables: Issues And The Way Forward:- Obasi Oji Ukoha

ABSTRACT

Nigeria is a large economy in Africa, contributing 10.15 percent of African GDP and constituting even a much higher proportion (14.54 percent) to African population (Akpan and Afangideh, 2009). Nigeria’s economic performance is therefore an important growth driver for the African Economy. Notwithstanding $300 billion from oil between 1970 and 2001, Nigeria’s per capital GDP actually fell from $ 264 to $256 in constant 1995 US dollars over 1970-2001. Infrastructure deteriorated because of the cutback in public investments. In 2001, per capita electric power consumption was only 82kw compared to the low-income countiy (LIC) average of 317kw and a huge 3, 800 kw in South Africa. Nigerians had suffered, notwithstanding the oil bonaza in 2003, the infant mortality ’■ate was 101 per 1,000 live births compared to 79 in LICs and 54 in South Africa (Okonjo-Iweala, 2012). Between 1970 and 1982, the production of Nigeria’s major cash ctopscocoa, rubber, cotton and groundnuts - fell 43, 29, 65, and 64 percent, respectively. By the mid-1980s, cocoa was virtually all that was left of agricultural exports, but its share in world trade had halved. The situation is still the same now (Ukoha, 1999).