This article will discuss which country has more riches in terms of resources at its disposal. India is arguably the biggest country in the world in terms of population. Now I understand that China has a slightly larger population than India, but the Chinese population has pretty much stagnated and could hit a decline pretty soon, thereby pushing India to number one.
Nigeria, on the other hand, is the most populated country in Africa. Indeed, we can infer that both countries are the most populated of their respective continents.
To distinguish between which country is richer, we will measure the riches of both countries in terms of their population and its projected growth. We also look at the current GDP and what makes up the bulk of it. Lastly, we will look at the resources that both countries have at their disposal, which will in turn give us a fair idea of which country has more riches.
Population
Currently, India has a population of 1.38 billion people, and this population is just at the cusp of catching up with the Chinese population. India is projected to have a population of 1.6 billion people by the year 2050 and indeed become the number one country in terms of population strength.
Nigeria and the other hand has a population of just over 200 million people. This figure is expected to double to 400 million by the year 2050. In other words, what these numbers mean is that India and Nigeria are so far apart in terms of population, and it doesn’t look like Nigeria will be able to catch up with the population of India anytime soon, or ever.
So clearly India is a country which in theory should be able to generate more weatlth than Nigeria. And in this regard, India has an upper hand
GDP
India has a GDP of 2.6 trillion US dollars, which makes it one of the top 10 economies in the world. However, the GDP per capita of India stands at 1,900 USD, which pales slightly in comparison to that of Nigeria, which is 2097 USD per head.
So we can say that the Nigerian population is ever slightly more productive than the Indian population. However, judging by the share amount of what they can produce NOW, india is way ahead of Nigeria.
Resources
India and Nigeria are two countries that have lots of minerals. India has the 4th largest coal reserves in the world. They generate a lot of energy with coal and this informed their unwillingness to commit to a clean energy agreement at COP26. India also has the 7th largest manganese ore reserve in the world.
Nigeria on the other hand is an oil giant and the Dangote refinery currently being built in the Lekki Peninsula of Lagos state will be the biggest oil refinery in the world.
Although people often think that oil is the major driver of the Nigerian economy, this is not true. In actual fact, the Nigerian Economy is driven primarily by the agriculture sector which accounts for about 24% of Nigeria’s GDP.
India and Nigeria have been trading in oil for a long time and the total value of Nigerian crude oil exports to India in the year 2020 stands at 4.56 billion US dollars.
India is a services-based economy as the Indian services sector contributes, massively to its economy strength. Financial, real estate, professional services, public administration, defense, and other services like trade hotels, transportation, communication, and broadcasting are all under the services sector of the Indian economy and this sector alone contributes to a massive 54.3% of the Indian GDP in the year 2018-2019.
Conclusion
In terms of the natural resources, Nigeria has the upper hand as oil is lot more easier to convert to cash than coal (which india has an abundance of). However, in terms of human resources; India is clearly in the lead and it is fair to conclude that both countries do not necessarily have more resources than the other especially if you account for population. is not a good measure of the talent of the resources of both countries.
India is by far the richer of the two countries, in particular if we rate both countries on the amount of resources they have right now. Although Nigeria has the upper hand in terms of GDP per capita, India still has a much higher GDP anyways. India ranks higher in terms of population which contributes massively to the services sector of its economy. Moreover, human resources is a far more reliable metric than natural resources, which will deplete over time.
We can come to the definite conclusion that India is a richer country than Nigeria.
Check out the richer of the two countries between Nigeria and India.
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Author
Abbey Johnson has a Masters degree as an engineer and has over 3 years of teaching and research experience. He is happiest when on a bike and is also interested in electric energy and computer Science.