Going by the most recent national census held in 2006, Nigeria has a population of over 140 million
inhabitants. It is the most populated country in Africa and accounts for more than 25 percent
of the population of sub-Saharan Africa. Between it and the republic of South Africa they account
for more than 50 percent of sub-Saharan Africa GDP. Nigeria as a member of Organization
of Petroleum Exporting countries produces an average of 2.3 million barrels of oil per day and it
is reckoned to be the sixth largest oil producer in the world. Nigeria spans a geographical area of
924,000 square kilometers, and it is bordered by the Gulf of Guinea, the Cameroon, the republics
of Benin, Niger and Chad.
The country in addition to being endowed with oil, has a wide variety of solid mineral resources
including deposits of coal, tin ore, kaolin, gypsum, gold, columbite, barites, graphite marble, tantalite,
uranium, sulphur, salt and soda, most of which are yet to be exploited in commercial quantities.
It is also blessed with rich arable land which is about 75 percent of the country’s total land
area, and of which less than 50 percent is under cultivation. With low level of industrialization
agriculture remains the dominant economic activity, contributing on the average over 45 percent
of annual total GDP, while oil remains the dominant foreign exchange earner. The principal nonoil
export commodities are cocoa and rubber which between them account for more than 60 percent
of non-oil merchandise. Given Nigeria’s size, location and potentials the country occupies a
strategic position in African policy space as far as the economic and political agenda of the continent
are concerned.