Nigeria is the most populous country in the whole of Africa with a population of over a hundred and fifty million. It also has the eight highest population among the countries of the World. The Nigerian Naira is the currency of Nigeria.
When we talk of the Nigerian economy we can not ignore the role that the oil and petroleum industry has to play in it. Almost half of the Gross Domestic Product of the country is sue to the oil and the petroleum industry. The OPEC that is the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting countries is formed of twelve oil exporting countries. Nigeria was one of the founding nations of this organization. Nigeria is currently the eight highest exporter of petroleum in World. Agriculture is also one of the main sectors in Nigeria and more than half the people in Nigeria are associated with this sector. But, the Agriculture sector has not seen any growth in the previous years and urgent reforms are needed to bring the Agriculture sector back to life. What used to be once the backbone of the Nigerian economy just about manages to be a contributor to it. So much so that once Nigeria was used to grow food on its own and in fact used to export a lot of it, but now it has to import stuff from other countries. Textile, clothing and the leather industry are some of the other industries in Nigeria that are doing well now.
But Nigerian economy has also been strong because it was able to pay off its debt entirely that it owned to the Paris club. The debt of about $30 billion was paid off in the year 2006. No other African country before Nigeria had been able to fully pay off it s debt. The Nigerian economy is now witnessing economic growth which augurs well for the people residing in Nigeria.