Country Project Nigeria
This article is written by Charlotte Remteng, Muhammad Bello Suleiman, Chiamaka Maureen Asoegwu and Chysom Nnaemeka Emenyonu as part of the requirements for the Open Africa Power Fellowship Programme 2021. Click here to download the pdf version of this article.
Introduction/overview of the country
The Federal Republic of Nigeria, a country in the southeast of West Africa, with coast at the Bight of Benin and the Gulf of Guinea. Nigeria is bordered by Benin, Cameroon, Chad, and Niger, it shares maritime borders with Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, and São Tomé and Príncipe, with an area of 923,768 km². Nigeria's main rivers are the Niger, where it got its name from, and the Benue, the main tributary of the Niger. The country's highest point is Chappal Waddi (or Gangirwal) with 2,419 m (7,936 ft.), located in the Adamawa mountains in the Gashaka-Gumti National Park, Taraba State, on the border with Cameroon. Nigeria's latitude and longitude is 10° 00' N and 8° 00' E.
A key regional player in West Africa, Nigeria accounts for about half of West Africa's population with approximately 202 million people and one of the largest populations of youth in the world. With an abundance of natural resources, it is Africa's biggest oil exporter and has the largest natural gas reserves on the continent (World Bank, 2020). Figure 2 below is Nigeria's population trend from 2015-2021. Nigeria is a multi-ethnic and culturally diverse federation that consists of 36 autonomous states and the Federal Capital Territory (J.E Opute, 2020). The political landscape is partly dominated by the ruling All Progressives Congress party (APC. Since 2011, the Nigerian security landscape has been consistently shaped by the war against Boko Haram terrorist groups in the northern states (UNDP, 2021). This adds to a lasting crisis in the oil-rich Niger Delta, where several non-state armed groups attack oil companies and state-owned pipelines.
According to the World Bank country brief on Nigeria, it is the second-largest economy in sub-Saharan Africa and accounts for 41 percent of the region's GDP. GDP growth: 2.3 percent (2019), GDP per capita: US$6,054 and Key goods and services traded; Wheat, crude oil (Nigeria Market Insights 2021). However, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria’s economy contracted 1.5 percent in 2016 due to lower oil revenues and a shortage of hard currency. Nigeria has also been highly vulnerable to the global economic disruption caused by COVID-19, particularly due to the pronounced decline in oil prices and spikes in risk aversion in global capital markets (World Bank, 2020). Furthermore, The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) recently released the “2019 Poverty and Inequality in Nigeria” report, which highlights that 40 percent of the total population, or almost 83 million people, live below the country’s poverty line of 137,430 naira ($381.75) per year. COVID-19 is deepening poverty and inequality that already exists in the country with 53 million people vulnerable to fall into poverty (World Bank 2020), thus, alleviating the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis is vital for preventing poverty from deepening and increasing in Nigeria. The unemployment rate in Nigeria increased to 33.30 percent in the fourth quarter of 2020 from 27.10 percent in the second quarter of 2020 (National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria). According to the UNDP gender equality assessment, although there are more women than ever in the labor market, there are still large inequalities in some regions, with women systematically denied the same work rights as men. Sexual violence and exploitation, the unequal division of unpaid care and domestic work, and discrimination in public office all remain huge barriers. Climate change and disasters continue to have a disproportionate effect on women and children, as do conflict and migration.
Critical environmental problems in Nigeria include; Sheet erosion, gully erosion, coastal and Marine erosion, and land subsidence occur particularly in coastal areas, flooding occurs throughout Nigeria in three main forms; coastal flooding, river flooding, and urban flooding, drought and Desertification, oil Pollution from spills, climate change, loss of biodiversity, urban Decay and Squatter Settlements Industrial Pollution and Waste, etc.
Table 1 below shows some key socio-economic indicators.
