Online businesses are major contributors to the growth of the Nigerian economy.
This is the word from Marek Zmyslowski, MD of Africa’s largest online hotel booking platform Jovaga, speaking at the Third EU-Nigeria Business Forum.
On a panel discussion about the private sector’s contribution to Nigeria’s growth at forum, Zmyslowski stated that with the influx of online businesses in Nigeria, the economy has seen a significant boom.
Zmyslowski was on the panel with the Polish Deputy Minister of Economy, Andrzej Dycha; UK Trade Envoy to Nigeria MP David Heath; head of EU Delegation to Nigeria, Ambassador Michael Arrion; regional director of Peugeot
Nigeria, Eric Maydieu; CEO of National Competitiveness Council of Nigeria (NCCN), Chika Mordi; World Bank lead economist, John Litwack; director, Orleans Invest, Simone Volpi and Olusegun Aganga of the Hon. Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, all of whom held varying opinions on the position of the Nigerian economy and what it stands to gain from executing the proposed free trade agreement.
Zmyslowski noted: “Oil and agriculture used to be the leading sources of Nigerian economy, but with the rebased GDP it was shown that these two industries together only account for 37,9% of the overall Nigerian economy.
“Service and online businesses, such as Jovago.com, now total more than 51% of the Nigerian economy, making it the greatest contributors and demonstrating a diversifying economy. Nigeria’s rebasing GDP merely reinforced the fact that it is the biggest economy in Africa, which has been long evident from Nigeria’s booming economy.”