Any ranking of countries according to GDP is misleading -- Kola Ogunleye

Nigeria Africa's fastest growing economy, recently rebased its Gross Domestic Product to cover sectoral changes with the inclusion of developments in the Information technology, Telecommunications, Entertainment Industry especially the Film Industry known as Nollywood. The new figure by revision puts the Nation as the biggest economy in Africa pegged at $510bl ahead of South Africa, Hong Kong and Singapore. The last time Nigerian rebased its economy was in 1990, while countries like Ghana and South Africa had done theirs in the last decade. Indeed, only 10 African countries have a base year that is less than a decade old. The outcomes of which today presents a paradox of sorts with a reduced GDP growth rate and no discernible influence on FDI's, debt profile or inclusive growth. This outcomes for African economies has influenced reactions from leading analysts and economists who question some of the figures as well as the impact it would have on the real economy beyond the 'feel-good' factor it offers; for a while. Economists like Mr Bizmark Rewane CEO Financial Derivatives assert that it has little effect on the real economy as the issue of income inequality continues to experience a wide surge. Just last week the World Bank index report put Nigeria as a nation, with an extreme poverty level, considering the analysis that over 100 out of 167 million people are living in abject poverty. The lack of nexus between growth and development informed our EXCLUSIVE interview with Arch Kola Ogunleye, a developmental economist of repute and former policy advisor to the Hon. Commissioner of Finance for Ogun State who expanded on the issues around the 'GDP Rebasing'.