With 148 million people, Nigeria is Africa’s most populous nation. Its economy is second in size only to South Africa’s. It is the continent’s major oil producer and the fifth largest supplier of crude to the United States.

Since 1999 elected governments have been implementing market-oriented reforms and made an effort to have Nigeria’s riches trickle down the broader population and rectify the inequities of past dictatorships. Nigeria offers investors a low-cost labor pool, abundant natural resources, and by far the largest domestic market on the continent.

Its return to democracy reopened one of Africa’s major markets for overseas business. American, European and Asian investors have not been slow in taking advantage as evidenced by impressive foreign direct investment not only in the oil sector but in manufacturing and telecommunications.

Country Profile

Nigeria is the largest of several West African countries on the Gulf of Guinea. The Niger and Benue rivers floe through a Y-shaped delta into the Gulf of Guinea. The Hausa-Fulani, mostly Muslim, dominate in the north while the Ibo are in the majority in the southwestern part of the country.

Major cities, apart from Lagos with a population of 9 million, are Abuja (the capital), Kano, Port Harcourt, and Kaduna. About 50% of Nigeria’s population is Muslim, 40% Christian and the rest adhere to ethnic religions.

Business Activity

Agriculture

Cocoa, peanuts, palm oil, corn, rice, sorghum, millet, cassava (tapioca), yams, rubber, cattle, sheep, goat, pigs, timber, fish.

Industries

Crude oil, tin, columbite, palm oil, cotton, rubber, wood, hides and skins, textiles, cement and other construction materials, food products, footwear, chemicals, fertilizer, printing, ceramics, steel.

Natural Resources

Petroleum, tin, columbite, iron ore, coal, limestone, lead, zinc, natural gas.

Export

$62.4 billion (est.2007): petroleum and petroleum products, cocoa, rubber.

Imports

$38.8 billion (est.2007): machinery, chemicals, transportation equipment, manufactured goods, food, and live animals.

Major Trading Partners

US, China, UK, Spain, France, Netherlands, Brazil, German

Source: Les de Villiens, Africa 2009, Ninth Edition (A publication of The Corporate Council on Africa and Business Books International)