Nigeria is a nation with the vast majority of resources embedded within the nation.
These resources are not just physical or natural within the land but also human.
As is the case with most of the African nations and their natural resources, they are structured around servitude and restriction in the form of the proper and total utility of these resources by the Government for its citizens.
There is the need to engage the citizenry to understand the potential inherent in them as such enabling them to become financially free and, by extension, increasing the wealth of the various nations.
Consequently, this can be in the form of expanding and exploring the various natural resources within the land.
What is GDP?
According to the International monetary fund (IMF) GDP of a nation refers to the Gross Domestic Product of the country in question.
A country’s GDP is the value of its final goods and services that can be transacted within its borders. Generally, this refers to goods and services that are bought or used by the final user and produced in a particular country.
No matter how exotic a nation looks, if they do not produce goods and services for the final consumers there is a tendency for the nation to not grow its GDP.
Although GDP is composed of goods and services produced for sale in the market, it also includes some nonmarket production, such as defense or education services provided by the government.
There are private-sector products or goods and services that can also be added to the GDP of any nation.
What are the major contributors to the Nigerian economy?
The Nigerian economy is largely dependent on agricultural and mineral resources for well over 60 years of its existence.
Before the civil war of 1967 to 1970, the Nigerian economy was solely dependent on Agriculture and the nation was known for its major export of raw materials from its vast land resources this helped to increase the GDP of the nation as it was called the “green nation” based on their agricultural production.
Then came the period of the oil boom, which started after the discovery of crude oil in commercial quantities and became an export product, generating income for the country.
This eventually led to a high increase in the GDP for the country of Nigeria as it was considered a product of the land according to the IMF.
However, this did not translate into financial gains to the common man on the streets as they do not intrinsically feel the impact of having so much petrodollar accruing to the nation, not getting into the pockets of the common man.
Information and communication contributing to the GDP
The advent of the information and communication era in early 2000 saw a different paradigm of production of goods and services on a global scale.
It was tagged the “Dot com” era.
This was the era that gave birth to the use of the internet and virtually everything could be created on it and sold without the need for person-to-person contact.
This form of products and services has seen Nigeria improve its GDP in the past 20 years as a result of the transformation the sector has brought to the nation’s economy.
The Information and Communication sector represents activities in four sub-sectors: Telecommunications and Information Services; Publishing; Motion Picture, Sound Recording, and Music Production; and Broadcasting.
All the above-mentioned sub-sectors have witnessed tremendous growth, especially in the telecommunications sector which has witnessed one of the largest growth rates in the global index from a few thousand communication lines before 1999 to over 500 million telephone lines in under 20 years.
How has ICT impacted the GDP of Nigeria in 2022?
According to a report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the Information & Communication sector in the first quarter of 2022 recorded a growth rate of 12.07% in real terms, year-on-year (YoY).
From the rate recorded in the corresponding period of 2021, there was an increase of 5.60% points. Quarter-on-Quarter, the sector exhibited a growth of -9.09% in real terms.
This result has shown that the ICT sector outperformed other sectors including the agriculture sector and mining sectors in recent years.
Can blockchain technology and cryptos be a plus for the GDP of Nigeria?
Although the statistics reported by the NBS did not specify the major contents of the ICT sector’s performance in the GDP, it is becoming obvious that blockchain technology is a major key in the ICT sector for GDP growth in recent years.
However, from the activities of the past 2 years, blockchain development and the use of cryptocurrencies have facilitated transactions and products and services across the nation of Nigeria, resulting in a massive increase.
Subsequently, blockchain technology has already taken a firm root in a more dynamic way such that the Federal Government of Nigeria has set up a think tank to facilitate the government’s political will to implement the blockchain technology initiative with various tech hubs spearheading these initiatives.
That leads to the conclusion that the transformation of any nation that intends to grow exponentially in its GDP would require an intentional implementation of legislation, facilitating the proper adoption of blockchain technology across all sectors of the economy for sustainable growth and development of that country.
The launch of the Klever Blockchain, a.k.a KleverChain, will enable the company to be more open to such opportunities to participate in the nation-building of blockchain services.
