The Presidency has pushed back against recent comments by AfDB President Akinwumi Adesina, who claimed Nigerians are worse off today than they were at independence in 1960.
In a formal statement, presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga described Adesina’s claim as misleading and based on faulty data. Adesina, citing Nairametrics, had said Nigeria’s GDP per capita dropped from $1,847 in 1960 to $824 today.
Onanuga disputed those figures, noting that official records put Nigeria’s 1960 GDP at $4.2 billion, with a per capita income of just $93 for a population of 44.9 million. “Our GDP didn’t grow significantly until the oil boom of the 1970s,” he said.
He cited a steady rise in GDP—from $12.5 billion in 1970 to $164 billion in 1981, eventually peaking at $574 billion after the 2014 GDP rebasing. Per capita income only crossed $880 in 1980 and reached $3,200 in 2014.
But more importantly, Onanuga argued that GDP per capita alone doesn’t capture real improvements in quality of life. “It doesn’t reflect access to healthcare, education, infrastructure, or digital services,” he said.
He highlighted major progress since 1960, when Nigeria had only 18,724 telephone lines. “Today, over 200 million Nigerians have access to mobile phones,” he noted, adding that telecom growth—like MTN’s N1 trillion Q1 2025 revenue—defies the idea of economic regression.
Onanuga concluded that Nigeria’s GDP today is “at least 50 times, if not 100 times, more than it was in 1960,” and said no fair-minded observer could deny the country has made significant progress.
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