According to businesscarriers, Nigeria is an agricultural country with a developed oil industry. Despite significant natural and human resources, the lack of political stability, corruption, and an extremely low level of management at the macroeconomic level led to a long period of stagnation of the national economy. The dynamics of the country’s economic development during the years of independence was determined by the extensive industrial development of hydrocarbon resources and the decline in agricultural production. Within the framework of the international division of labor, Nigeria has lost its role as a leading supplier of certain types of agricultural raw materials to the world market, while retaining its monocultural nature and raw material orientation. The economy has acquired a sustainable fuel and mineral specialization, becoming one of the world’s major net oil exporters.
The symbiosis of the modern and traditional (informal) sectors of the economy, the large scale of the “shadow” business, which controls up to 76% of GDP, complicates reliable statistical analysis and limits the assessment of trends in its development. In 2001, GDP was estimated at the equivalent of $105.9 billion, i.e. OK. $840 per capita. Nigeria is classified as one of the least developed countries in the world. Below the poverty line lives approx. 45% of the population (2000). Nevertheless, the average annual GDP growth rate (average 3% in the 1990s and 3.5% in 2001) somewhat exceeded the population growth rate, and there was a tendency for the country to slowly emerge from a period of economic stagnation. The high level of inflation persisted (14.9% in 2001), preventing stabilization at the macroeconomic level.
In the sectoral structure of the economy, agriculture accounts for 39% of GDP (2000), and the overwhelming majority of the economically active population, 70% (1999), is employed in it. For industry, these figures are 33 and 10%, respectively, for the service sector – 28 and 20%.
Agriculture has been in deep decline over the past decades, having lost the ability to adequately provide the country’s population with food and other products, as well as to produce marketable products, the export of which would give the country significant foreign exchange earnings. The droughts and crop failures of the 1960s, the increase in migration from rural to urban areas, as well as the growth in income from the exploitation of oil resources, which made it possible to reorient the tastes of the population towards imported food, led to the stagnation of the industry. The rise of agricultural production is hampered by an inadequate system of land use: there are very few large modern enterprises of the agro-industrial complex in the country and the main production is concentrated on small farms while maintaining communal land tenure, which in the north of Nigeria is complicated by the presence of feudal remnants. In combination with low soil fertility, low availability of irrigation and fertilizer use, poor marketing practices have also become a brake, leading to the formation of low purchase prices for agricultural products.
Nigerian agriculture produces commercial (export) crops, incl. (thousand tons, 2000) cocoa beans – 225, peanuts – 2783, soybeans – 372 (Nigeria occupies one of the leading places in Africa in their production), as well as oil palm products, cotton, rubber plants, sugar cane. Food crops are also grown for domestic consumption, incl. yams – 25,873, cassava – 32,697, corn – 5476, sorghum – 7520, millet – 5960, rice – 3277, etc.
Among cash crops, only cocoa continues to play a significant role in the country’s commodity exports. Nigeria is one of the leading producers of cocoa beans and cocoa products, ranked 4th in the world after Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Indonesia. The stable demand for Nigerian cocoa in the world market is primarily due to its special taste.
The development of agricultural production and exports is among the priorities of the civil government, which is launching a massive campaign to achieve full self-sufficiency in agricultural products and expand the volume of its exports in a wide range, incl. by providing guaranteed purchase prices, lending to producers, improving planting material, improving product storage methods, using chemical fertilizers, etc.
The basis of animal husbandry is (thousand heads, 2000): cattle – 19,830, goats – 24,300 and, to a lesser extent, sheep – 20,500. Most livestock farms with approx. 90% of the livestock population is located in the far north of the country, in the Sudanese belt, in a zone of tall grass savannas, which serves as good pastures and is distinguished by the absence of tsetse flies. The role of pig breeding (4855 thousand heads) and poultry farming (126 million units, 2000) is increasing.
Fishing and seafood production are carried out in the waters of the coastal shelf of the Gulf of Guinea, in Lake Chad, in lagoons, rivers, as well as numerous water streams in the river delta. Niger. The fish catch reaches approx. 250 thousand tons (40% of the country’s needs).
The oil industry is the leading branch of the Nigerian economy, producing approx. 20% of GDP, provided by approx. 65% of budget revenues and 95% of foreign exchange earnings from foreign economic operations. In accordance with the OPEC quota, Nigeria produces 2.0-2.1 million barrels. oil per day.
Exploration, development and production of oil both in the continental part of the country and on the coastal shelf are carried out mainly by joint companies formed by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NOPC) and foreign oil corporations, among which the leading place is occupied by Royal Dutch Shell (40-50% of production), as well as Exxon, ENI, Agip, Elf Aquitaine and others. Along with equity participation, financing of the oil industry is also carried out through the sale of NONK’s stake in a number of such enterprises, carried out as part of the privatization program, as well as on the basis of production sharing contracts.
The gas industry has the prospect of becoming another source of foreign exchange earnings. While Nigeria is forced to burn up to 75% of the gas associated with oil production, approx. 12% of its amount is pumped back into the oil wells and only approx. 13% is used for industrial and domestic needs.
In 2000, the installed capacity of the Nigerian electricity industry was approx. 5900 MW, 15.9 billion kWh produced, incl. 64% of electricity – at TPPs and 36% – at HPPs. The power industry of the country is characterized by failures in the supply of electricity to consumers, incl. its occasional shutdowns. On a small scale (19 million kWh, 2000), Nigeria exports electricity to neighboring countries.
The capacities of the coal industry allow to extract approx. 150 thousand tons of coal. Other branches of the mining industry are also developed. Iron ore, tin concentrate, bauxite, columbite, copper and gold are produced. Among non-metallic minerals, bentonite, gypsum, magnesite, phosphates, talc, barite are being developed. Precious and semi-precious stones are mined in small volumes: sapphires, topazes and aquamarines.
