Nigeria’s dependence on crude oil makes its economy vulnerable. But the transition to an economy not based on oil won’t be easy. The oil sector has an outsize influence on Nigeria’s economy despite representing a relatively small proportion of the gross domestic product: about 9% in 2020. But, in the same period, crude oil sales made up one-third of the government’s budget revenue and about 90% of the West African nation’s export earnings. “This is bad because it makes Nigeria a very volatile country,” said Tokunbo Afikuyomi, a UK-based economist who writes for the Nigerian financial publication Stears Business. When the price of crude oil is lower than government projections, gaping holes emerge in the federal budget. Though this has been a problem in Nigeria for at least the past decade, the coronavirus pandemic has made it worse. The slump in global oil prices at the beginning of the […]