Dealmaking in frontier markets: Nigeria

Financial News

16 September 2011

Dealmaking in frontier markets: Nigeria

Richard Partington

Continuing our series of profiles of rapidly growing frontier markets where there are deals to be done, we look at Nigeria.

Why Nigeria matters

Nigeria is rapidly developing as a financial hub for sub Saharan Africa, centred around the port city of Lagos and boosted by the country’s booming oil trade.

Vast oil reserves located around the Niger delta have made the country a hotspot for the oil industry, with the government gradually opening up to international investment. Conflict plagued the country throughout the 1990s before transition back to an elected democracy in 1999. There are still reported incidents of unrest around the Niger delta and in other parts of the country from time to time.

Real GDP is forecast to grow by 6.9% this year in Nigeria and by 6.6% in 2012, according to the IMF. The country ranks at a difficult 137 on the World Bank’s ease of doing business index, although there are still achievable deals out there.