Business
Nigeria growing faster than South Africa – more work needed from Nigeria to reach parity
The limits of GDP?
Unorthadox economists like Joseph Stiglitz have long argued that GDP is “a poor measure of well being”, because it fails to capture things like health, income equality and the environment.
South Africa’s GDP per capita is six times Nigeria’s and on most counts of quality of life, it scores better. Roads are good, tap water drinkable, and the power supply usually ample even if the grid is almost stretched to capacity.
Nigeria’s roads are potholed, its water polluted and its power stations generate less than a mid-sized European city.
“In terms of economic development, Nigeria has far to go to catch up with South Africa. An increase in GDP is not going to suddenly change that,” said Standard Bank’s Samir Gadio.
Nigeria also has one of the world’s worst records on environmental protection. The Niger Delta, a labyrinth of tropical swamps home to hundreds of bird species, is a place where energy majors spill huge quantities of oil with impunity.
Frequent pipeline attacks by oil thieves leak even more.
South Africa, by contrast, has some of the toughest laws to protect its wilderness in Africa. A rhino poaching epidemic to feed East Asian demand for quack medicines may be testing its resolve. In Nigeria, though, the rhino is long since extinct.
