Sub-saharan country nigeria. Social Sciences. Term Paper

Nigeria
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Nigeria
Nigeria is an African country located at the south-east of West Africa and has its coast in the Gulf of Guinea and the Bight of Benin (Central Intelligence Agency, 2018). Nigeria has diverse geography because of its humid to arid equatorial climate. The country’s main feature is its population. By 2017, Nigeria had a population of approximately 190 million people (World Bank, 2018). This population size represents an annual growth of 2.6 percent per annum, up from the 1990s during which, the country’s total population was close to 95 million people (World Bank, 2018). The large population size also makes it the seventh most populated nation globally. The country’s large population can be attributed to poor policies, and as stipulated by the United Nations, by 2050, Nigeria will be ranked third on the list of most populated nations. The nation has different ethnolinguistic groups, some of which include the Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, and Fula. Nigeria also has plenty of natural resources, specifically natural gas and petroleum, which greatly contribute to the country’s GDP. The country also has a total arthe ea of 923, 768 square kilometers, which is slightly greater than twice the size of the state of California, and four times the size of the UK (Central Intelligence Agency, 2018).
Nigeria experienced a growth in GDP of 0.8 percent because of the continued growth in agriculture and expansion in oil output (World Bank, 2018). Compared to 2010, the country has experienced a significant drop in annual GDP growth from 7.8 percent per annum. The decrease in GDP can be linked to the high rates of unemployment and an increase in underemployment. The private sector has also experienced low credits while non-agricultural, and non-oil sectors have weakened as the country continues to focus more on the oil sector. Nigeria’s economy is highly dependent on the country’s exports. The main exports include crude petroleum ($27.1 billion), petroleum gas ($5.36 billion), cocoa beans ($741 million), Gold ($711 million) and refined petroleum ($582 million) (World Bank, 2018). A majority of the exports are shipped to India, Spain, South Africa, and the United States. On the other hand, the country imports most of its goods from China, Belgium, India, the United States, and the Netherlands. In 2016, the country exported products worth $36.9 billion and imported goods worth $35.1 billion, which represented 9 percent and 12 percent of the country’s GDP respectively (World Bank, 2018). The $1.81 billion difference in exports and imports represents a positive trade balance.
The country is, however, expected to experience a growth in GDP of 2 percent by the end of 2018, because of the high global oil prices, greater foreign exchange rate allocation, and reduced inflationary pressures. However, the 2 percent increase is low compared to the average sub-Saharan growth of 3.1 percent by the end of 2018 (World Bank, 2018). This expected growth will be higher than that experienced in the previous year. Nonetheless, political uncertainty can undermine growth prospects, especially during the 2019 elections. The life expectancy at birth in the country ...