Flag Description:The flag of Nigeria has three equal vertical bands of green (hoist side), white, and green.
Nigerian Economy
Economy - overview:
Oil-rich Nigeria, long hobbled by political instability, corruption, inadequate infrastructure, and poor macroeconomic management, is undertaking some reforms under the new civilian administration. Nigeria's former military rulers failed to diversify the economy away from overdependence on the capital-intensive oil sector, which provides 20% of GDP, 95% of foreign exchange earnings, and about 65% of budgetary revenues. The largely subsistence agricultural sector has failed to keep up with rapid population growth - Nigeria is Africa's most populous country - and the country, once a large net exporter of food, now must import food. Following the signing of an IMF stand-by agreement in August 2000, Nigeria received a debt-restructuring deal from the Paris Club and a $1 billion credit from the IMF, both contingent on economic reforms. Nigeria pulled out of its IMF program in April 2002, after failing to meet spending and exchange rate targets, making it ineligible for additional debt forgiveness from the Paris Club. The government has lacked the political will to implement the market-oriented reforms urged by the IMF, such as to modernize the banking system, to curb inflation by blocking excessive wage demands, and to resolve regional disputes over the distribution of earnings from the oil industry. During 2003, however, the government deregulated fuel prices and announced the privatization of the country's four oil refineries. GDP growth probably will rise marginally in 2004, led by oil and natural gas exports.
GDP: purchasing power parity - $114.8 billion (2004 est.)
GDP - real growth rate: 7.1% (2004 est.)
GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $900 (2004 est.)
GDP - composition by sector: agriculture: 30.8% industry: 43.8% services: 25.4% (2004 est.)
Investment (gross fixed): 27.7% of GDP (2004 est.)
Population below poverty line: 60% (2000 est.)
Household income or consumption by percentage share: lowest 10%: 1.6% highest 10%: 40.8% (1996-97)
Distribution of family income - Gini index: 50.6 (1996-97)
Inflation rate (consumer prices): 13.8% (2004 est.)
Labor force: 54.36 million (2004 est.)
Labor force - by occupation: agriculture 70%, industry 10%, services 20% (1999 est.)
Unemployment rate: NA
Budget: revenues: $8.026 billion expenditures: $11.09 billion, including capital expenditures of NA (2004 est.)
Public debt:28.6% of GDP (2004 est.)
Agriculture - products: cocoa, peanuts, palm oil, corn, rice, sorghum, millet, cassava (tapioca), yams, rubber; cattle, sheep, goats, pigs; timber; fish
Industries:
crude oil, coal, tin, columbite, palm oil, peanuts, cotton, rubber, wood, hides and skins, textiles, cement and other construction materials, food products, footwear, chemicals, fertilizer, printing, ceramics, steel
Industrial production growth rate:
Electricity - production: 15.67 billion kWh (2001)
Electricity - consumption: 14.55 billion kWh (2001)
Electricity - exports: 20 million kWh (2001)
Electricity - imports: 0 kWh (2001)
Oil - production: 2.256 million bbl/day (2004 est.)
Oil - consumption: 275,000 bbl/day (2001 est.)
Oil - exports:NA (2001)
Oil - imports: NA (2001)
Oil - proved reserves: 30 billion bbl (2007)
Natural gas - production: 15.68 billion cu m (2001 est.)
Natural gas - consumption:7.85 billion cu m (2001 est.)
Natural gas - exports: 7.83 billion cu m (2001 est.)
Natural gas - imports: 0 cu m (2001 est.)
Natural gas - proved reserves: 4.007 trillion cu m (2004)
Current account balance:$1.439 billion (2004 est.)
Exports: $21.8 billion f.o.b. (2004 est.)
Exports - commodities:petroleum and petroleum products 95%, cocoa, rubber
Exports - partners: US 38.3%, India 9.9%, Brazil 6.8%, Spain 6.2%, France 5.6%, Japan 4% (2003)
Imports: $14.54 billion f.o.b. (2003 est.)
Imports - commodities: machinery, chemicals, transport equipment, manufactured goods, food and live animals
Imports - partners: US 15.6%, UK 9.6%, Germany 7.3%, China 7.2%, Italy 4.3% (2003)
Reserves of foreign exchange & gold:$7.128 billion (2004 est.)
Debt - external: $3.07 billion (2007 est.)
Economic aid - recipient:IMF $250 million (1998)
Currency: naira (NGN)
Currency code: NGN
Exchange rates: nairas per US dollar - 117 (2007), 129.222 (2003), 120.578 (2002), 111.231 (2001), 101.697 (2000), 92.3381 (1999)
Fiscal year:calendar year
Nigerian Geography
Location: Western Africa, bordering the Gulf of Guinea, between Benin and Cameroon
Geographic coordinates: 10 00 N, 8 00 E
Map references: Africa
Area: total: 923,768 sq km water: 13,000 sq km land: 910,768 sq km
Area - comparative: slightly more than twice the size of California
Land boundaries: total: 4,047 km border countries: Benin 773 km, Cameroon 1,690 km, Chad 87 km, Niger 1,497 km
Coastline: 853 km
Maritime claims: territorial sea: 12 nm exclusive economic zone: 200 nm continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation
Climate: varies; equatorial in south, tropical in center, arid in north
Terrain: southern lowlands merge into central hills and plateaus; mountains in southeast, plains in north
Elevation extremes: lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m, highest point: Chappal Waddi 2,419 m
Natural resources:natural gas, petroleum, tin, columbite, iron ore, coal, limestone, lead, zinc, arable land
Land use: arable land: 31.29% ,permanent crops: 2.96%, other: 65.75% (2001)
Irrigated land: 2,330 sq km (1998 est.)
Natural hazards: periodic droughts; flooding
Environment - current issues: soil degradation; rapid deforestation; urban air and water pollution; desertification; oil pollution - water, air, and soil; has suffered serious damage from oil spills; loss of arable land; rapid urbanization
Environment - international agreements: party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements
Geography - note: the Niger enters the country in the northwest and flows southward through tropical rain forests and swamps to its delta in the Gulf of Guinea
