Although GDP rebasing, Nigeria remains the fourth largest economy in Africa

Nigeria, yesterday, rearranged the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from N80 Trillion to N372 Trillion; However, regardless of this rebasing, this country remains the fourth largest economy in Africa.

In the ‘Rebasing of Gross Domestic (GDP) report released on Monday, July 21, 2025, the National Statistics Bureau (NBS) said the nominal GDP for Nigeria was far greater than previously expected.

As a result, NBS revealed that Nigeria’s nominal GDP is now N372.82 trillion in 2024 after rebasing exercise.

Rebasing GDP is the process of updating the basic year used to calculate Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to reflect changes in structure and economic composition.

This involves the use of a newer basic year to accurately reflect modern economic activities, consumption patterns, and sectoral contributions.

In the report, NBS noted that “Rebuilding estimates with the new year 2019 show that the nominal GDP for Nigeria is far greater than previously expected.

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“In 2019, the nominal GDP that was rebuilt at the market price reached N205.09 trillion, N213.64 trillion in 2020, N243.30 trillion in 2021, N274.23 trillion in 2022, N314.02 trillion in 2023, and N372.82 trillion in 202.”.

However, regardless of rebasing which increases Nigerian GDP from N80TR to the N372TR, Nigeria remains the fourth largest economy in Africa behind South Africa, Egypt and Algeria.

Before the rebasing exercise, the world bank reported that nigeria, with a gdp of $ 187,75 billion, is the fourth biggest economy in Africa in 2024, BeHind South Africa ($ 400.26 billion), Egypt ($ 389.05 Billion) ($ 263.61 billion), while Morocco ($ 154.43 billion) complete the top five list.

With GDP re -charged by Nigeria now in N372.82 trillion, the conversion to US currencies is $ 242.64 billion, using the exchange rate of the Nigerian central bank (CBN) N1,536.50 per dollar as of December 31, 2024.

This shows that Nigerian economic value increased when compared to the numbers reported by the World Bank in April; However, the country is still behind South Africa, Egypt and Algeria.

By: Babajide Okeowo