Gross Domestic Product (GDP) measures the overall market value of all final goods and services produced in a country in a specific time frame. GDP is one of the factors that indicates whether or not a country’s economy is healthy, growing, or in a stable condition.
Factors that account for high GDP include natural resources, large workforce (driven by larger population), advanced technologies, advanced industries, etc. This means, for example, the larger a country’s population and the more natural resources a country has (amongst the other factors), the more likely a higher GDP for that country.
Nigeria has a population of about 242 million. Denmark has a population of about 6 million. This means Nigeria’s population is about 40 times larger than the population of Denmark. In fact, the European Union (EU)—made up of 27 independent European countries—has a population of about 451 million. Meaning, Nigeria’s population alone is about half of the population of the entire EU population.
Again, Nigeria has a land size of about 923, 768 km sq. Denmark has a land size of about 42, 934km. Meaning, Nigeria is about 21 times bigger than Denmark (land area). Ukraine is the second biggest country in Europe (after Russia) with a land size of about 603,500 km sq. Germany is the 6th biggest country in Europe with a land area of about 357,581 km sq. Meaning, in terms of land size, Nigeria is about the sizes of Ukraine and Germany combined.
So it’s clear that there’s a certain level of correlation between land size/population size and higher GDP. That’s, the larger your country (land area), most likely, the more natural resources plus a bigger population give you a higher GDP. So with a vast land territory and a country with one of the biggest populations in the world, why is Denmark, a tiny country with a tiny population has a higher GDP than Nigeria? The usual suspects? Corruption? Incompetence? Bad governance? Greed? Mismanagement? I am just asking basic questions. But the answers are clear to me.
The point of my argument is not to say once a country has a larger population and land area, it automatically has or should have a higher GDP than countries with smaller populations and land areas. I am very aware that few countries with less populations and land area have higher GDPs than some countries with bigger populations and land area. The point of my argument is, with good governance, less corruption, good economic management, the bigger populations and land areas should have higher GDP. Therefore, Nigeria is punching below its economic weight. With good governance systems, etc. Nigeria’s economy should be better than a lot of the European economies. Nigeria and some other African countries should be able to compete with some of the G20 countries.