ECONOMICS

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRO
THE GEOGRAPHY

LOCATION

MAP

STATES, CAPITALS, & LINKS

LAND & CLIMATE

RIVERS

TOWNS & CITIES
PATRIOTIC STUFF

FLAG

COAT OF ARMS

NATIONAL ANTHEM

NATIONAL PLEDGE

MOTTO
PEOPLES

POPULATION

RELIGION
     -CHRISTIANITY
     -ISLAM
     -TRADITIONAL
     -INFLUENCE

ETHNIC GROUPS
     -YORUBA
     -IBO (or IGBO)
     -HAUSA (& FULANI)
     -OTHERS
CULTURES & CUSTOMS
LANGUAGES & INTRO

LANGUAGES
     -YORUBA ALPHABET
        & LANGUAGE
     -IBO ALPHABET & LANGUAGE
     -HAUSA ALPHABET
        & LANGUAGE
     -LINKS TO OTHERS

LANGUAGE RESOURCES
     -GENERAL RESOURCES
     -YORUBA RESOURCES
     -IBO RESOURCES
     -HAUSA RESOURCES
     -OTHERS
MORE ON LANGUAGES
     -NUMBERS
     -PEOPLE
     -BODY PARTS
     -HOUSE PARTS
     -PLACES
     -OTHER WORDS
ADDITIONAL LANGUAGES
NAMES & ORIGINS

YORUBA NAMES
     -THE NAMING CEREMONY
     -COMMON PARTS
     -CIRCUMSTANTIAL NAMES

IGBO NAMES

HAUSA NAMES

LINKS ON NAMES
MARRIAGE & FAMILY

THE WEDDING

MARRIAGE TIDBITS

FAMILY TIDBITS

OTHER SOURCES
FOODS AND DRINKS

INTRO

SOME MEALS

SOME DRINKS
RECIPES

RECIPES

LINKS
FOOD: BUYING & DINING

BUYING (ingredients and food)

DINING (restaurants)
HEALTHCARE

TRADITIONAL HEALTH

CURRENT HEALTH POLICY

INFO FOR TRAVELERS

CONTENTS OF THIS PAGE

CURRENCY
RESOURCES
IMPORTS
EXPORTS
INDUSTRY/INVESTMENT LINKS
ECONOMIC HISTORY
- CLASSIFICATION (GNP/GDP)

Also of interest might be the agriculture page.

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CURRENCY

The currency in Nigeria in called the "Naira", and the image is shown at the top right corner of this page. The coin equivalents are called the "Kobo" (even though coins are pretty much obsolete now). So,

100 Kobo = 1 Naira The bills are:

1-Naira bill (I don't know if this is still in circulation, it might be obsolete now.)
5-Naira bill (this has become 'change'...nothing costs less than 5 Naira now)
20-Naira bill
50-Naira bill
100-Naira bill (introduced in 2000)
500-Naira bill (introduced in 2001)

Here is a picture of the 20-Naira bill. You can click on either image for a larger view.

Also, here is a picture of the 50-Naira bill. You can click on either image for a larger view.

For scans of other bills, here is an excellent link that has just about every Naira bill that ever existed.

There are different exchange rates in Nigeria:

official rate: valid for certain government transactions
autonomous foreign exchange market: most businesses have to use this one

Keeping that in mind, here are some links that you can use to get the exchange rate from the Nigerian Naira to other currencies.

CNN Currency Converter: will convert currency for the present AND THE PAST.
Travel Finder's Currency Converter
The Universal Currency Converter
Travlang Currency Converter

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RESOURCES

It is no secret that Nigeria is one of the largest producers of oil and petroleum, and that this is the main source of the economy, accounting for well over 90% of the exports. The low-sulfur content of much of Nigeria's petroleum makes it especially desirable in a pollution-conscious world.

However, there are other minerals available in Nigeria, and some of them are:

barite
coal
columbite (it is the world's largest producer of columbite)
crude petroleum oil
fluorite
gold
iron
kyanite
lead
limestone
manganese
marble
natural gas
phosphate
salt
tantalite
tin
uranium
zinc

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IMPORTS

Some of the countries that Nigeria imports from are Britain (the largest), USA, Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Brazil.

Some of the main imports are machinery and transport equipment, manufactured goods, food and live animals, animal and vegetable oils and fats, mineral fuel lubricants, crude materials, beverages, tobacco, chemicals, and textiles.

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EXPORTS

Some of the countries that Nigeria exports to are the USA, Germany, France, Italy, Brazil, Spain, and India.

Most of the goods exported consist of petroleum and oil (surprise!), cocoa beans, rubber, palm kernels, cotton, yam, hides and skins.

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INDUSTRY/INVESTMENT LINKS

Since I have limited knowledge in this area, I am providing links that may provide useful information.

As usual, I don't endorse any of these external sites.

General Links

Specific Companies:

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ECONOMIC HISTORY

Before oil was discovered in the last 1950s, Nigeria basically survived on it's agriculture for it's economy, and for it's food. Today, agriculture is still a part of the domestic economy, but by the late 1960s, oil had replaced cocoa, peanuts, and palm products as the country's largest foreign exchange earner.

With oil money, Nigeria started importing raw materials from other countries, and as a result, manufacturing became established. Industry in Nigeria grew to include a full range of industries, including but not limited to food-processing, vehicles, textiles, pharmaceuticals, paper and cement. Before the discovery of oil, there had been very few industries. Part of the effects of the oil boom was that there was a significant rural-to-urban migration caused in part by the lure of high wages and consumer-oriented lifestyles of the city. This took a lot of the labor force away from the more rural farms, leaving the very young, the old, and the infirm to cultivate the land. Not surprisingly, agricultural production declined, and so did the export of cash crops. Eventually, the import of crops had to increase.

In 1971, Nigeria became a member of OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries). By then, it was the world's 7th largest petroleum producer.

In 1972, the government took some steps towards trying to promote Nigerian enterprises. At that time, about 70 percent of the commercial firms operating in Nigeria were foreign-owned, and the Nigerian government issued a decree to prevent foreigners from investing in specified enterprises, and reserved participation of certain trades to Nigerians. In 1975, the government bought 60 percent of the equity in the marketing operations of the major oil companies in Nigeria.

Also, the government had to deal with the severe drought that affected the north between 1972 and 1974 (this drought was the most serious since that of 1913-1914). This caused famines in Nigeria and some other neighboring countries, and some Africans came into Nigeria from some of those other countries.

In 1974, oil prices rose dramatically worldwide, and this caused a sudden flood of wealth, and the revenue that came into the country was intended for investment to diversify the economy, but instead, it led to inflation and a lot of unemployment.

In 1975, oil production fell sharply because of the decrease in world demand, and the prices moved downward until later in the year when OPEC intervened to raise prices. During the decline of oil prices, exports of traditional crops collapsed as a result of poor government policy and low prices on the world market.

When Nigeria found itself importing a lot of food, various agricultural plans and policies were drawn up to try to produce cheaper food in sufficient quantities. Examples of these were the Operation Feed the Nation (OFN) and Green Revolution (GR), and the Structural Adjustment Program (SAP). Some of the techniques involved in these different programs included large irrigation schemes, expansion of credit, using high-yielding seeds, dismantling the Commodity Boards, liberalizing export trade, introducing incentives to boost farmer's outputs, and assisting wheat-producing states. Also, other aspects of agriculture (besides just farming crops) were started, including forestry and fisheries.

In 1986, the ruler at the time introduced market reforms, freeing exchange and interest rates, and this led to a sharp drop in the value of the Naira, while lending rates rose to more than 40 percent.

However, even if agriculture was able to go back to where it was, the population growth was huge, and the agriculture in the country has been unable to keep up with this. So, Nigeria still now imports food. And it didn't help when in 1996, there were severe shortages of fertilizer that further limited the agricultural production.

With all the wealth that it 'should' have, Nigeria is still considered a third-world country nationwide, where the real standard of living has fallen sharply, and these are attributed to political instability, mismanagement and corruption, and the decline in oil prices.

Also, the developments in terms of oil has been pretty rocky over the last few years, and seems to have increased over the last few weeks (today is October 20, 1998). You can read a little bit more about this on the history page, but the environment concerns about the oil industry has increased over the last couple of years. And the ruler at the time (Sani Abacha) responded to this by executing the environmentalists that protested, leading to many countries placing sanctions against Nigeria. After he died in June of 1998, some of those sanctions have been removed, but oil troubles persist. Environmental activists are still speaking up and protesting against oil companies in parts of Nigeria because it is ruining their environment. These protests and attacks have led to oil production losses of over 400000 a day in September and October of 1998, and I read somewhere that these troubles have slashed oil exports from Nigeria by more than one-fifth.

CLASSIFICATION (GNP/GDP)

For those of you who understand what this means, GNP per capita was US$260 in 1995, with an annual average rise of 1.2% in real GNP per capita, 1985-95. GNP was $26.817m in 1995, and GDP growth estimated at 3.3% in 1996 (from the World Bank).

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