Monday, April 7, 2014

Nigeria's economy needs to grow by 10 percent to address poverty and youth unemployment.


Past weekend, Nigeria became Africa's biggest economy, with $510billion

Okonjo-Iweala has said that Nigeria's economy needs to grow at about 10 percent to address massive poverty and youth unemployment.

Government statistics say unemployment increased from 12.7 percent in 2007 to 23.9 percent in 2011; the World Bank says unemployment among young Nigerians stands at 38 percent but analysts say it is as high as 80 percent in many parts of the country.

Financial analyst Bismarck Rewane called the revisions "a vanity. The Nigerian population is not better off tomorrow because of that announcement. It doesn't put more money in the bank, more food in their stomach. It changes nothing."

Nigerians took to social networks to share their feelings. "So Nigeria has now supplanted South Africa as Africa's largest economy. But I've not had light (electricity) for seven days, so it means nothing to me," said one tweet.

Another commented: "Nigeria is Africa's biggest economy - on paper. So technically, I'm rich in theory."

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