NIGERA TO OVER TAKE SOUTH AFRICA

That’s my “take-home message” from the headlines emerging from a new Morgan Stanley report, which predicts Nigeria’s economy will overtake South Africa’s as Africa’s largest by 2025.

High oil prices, the “decisive” election of President Goodluck Jonathan and buoyant consumer spending will all push Nigeria’s economy into the front in the next 15 years, says the Morgan Stanley survey.

Critics in South Africa say they are not concerned about the prospect of the country losing its spot as the largest economy on the continent.

Economists brush off this latest report by saying that the Morgan Stanley projections are based on economic models that are contingent on factors that might or might not impact the Nigerian economy.