Fact Check: Is Lagos The Fith Largest Economy In Africa

The Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu during an interview session with the BBC in the United Kingdom, claimed that he met Lagos State when it was generating N600 million IGR per month, and he turned the fortunes around.

The former Lagos State governor, further boasted that the state is currently the fifth-largest economy in the whole of Africa.

Verification

Nigeria is the biggest economy in Africa, maintaining the same position for the past five years. Although Lagos state is the smallest in the country, it is the commercial hub of the country.

The value of Lagos State in 2021 was US$75.965 billion.

This places it behind the economies of five countries in sub-saharan Africa (Nigeria, South Africa, Ethiopia, Kenya and Ghana) and three in North Africa (Egypt, Algeria and Morocco).

If Lagos State were to be deducted from the national value, Nigeria would simply slump to the third position in Africa behind South Africa and Egypt.

Meanwhile, the state’s GDP remains larger than that of West African neighbours Niger, Benin, Togo, Chad, Sierra Leone, Liberia and the Gambia put together.

Verdict

Available records show that Lagos is not the 5th largest economy in Africa, but the Ninth. Although the state proves that its gross domestic product is way bigger than the statistics, officials are yet to prove their claim.

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Photo Credit: Getty