A statement?? from the?? African Economic Outlook (AEO)?? made?? available?? to LEADERSHIP? says that Nigeria’s robust economic growth has not generated the much needed employment thereby increasing the level of poverty in the country.
The AEO report for the 3rd quarter of 2012 set the GDP growth rate at an estimated 6.7 per cent.?
The AEO gave the figure of unemployment rate among the youth in Nigeria as 37.7 per cent. This figure, it pointed out, was one of the highest in sub-Saharan Africa.
The AEO 2012 was jointly prepared by the ADB, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The report also cautioned that the nation’s economy remained vulnerable to global economic shocks that weighed on the fiscal position and macro-economic stability, threatening growth prospects.
It added that to mitigate the negative impacts of the global economic crisis, the federal government pursued an expansionary fiscal policy to maintain growth and social sector spending that led to pressure on consumer prices.
However, the report identified the dilapidated state of infrastructure, in particular power, road transport and railways, and the overdependence of the economy on the oil and gas industry as major challenges to increasing the absorptive capacity of the Nigerian economy.
According to the report, these factors were priorities for the transformation agenda of the current administration and were being addressed through the creation of an enabling environment for private sector participation in infrastructure development, and through the development of the non-oil sector.
The AEO 2012 also found that, in spite of the dominance of the oil sector, agriculture played a significant role in the national economy, accounting for the largest single share of GDP.