In 2014, Nigeria made global headlines not because it struck oil or built something new, but because it changed the way it measured its economy. With that update, known as GDP rebasing, Nigeria suddenly became Africa’s largest economy.
It wasn’t magic. It was statistics. And now, it has happened again.
Between 2019 and 2024, Nigeria's economic size on paper has grown sharply not because more factories opened or exports soared, but because the government updated how it counts economic activity.
This process, once again, revealed somethi
