The Impact of Crude Oil in Nigeria. A Blessing or a Curse?

Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2013 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Region: Africa, grade: 1,0, , course: International Business, language: English, abstract: How did crude oil affect the economic growth and the poverty of Nigeria? This paper is going to analyze effect of crude oil on the Nigerian economy. We examine the correlation between fuel exports and GDP per capita growth, and poverty headcount ratio between 1960 and 2012. Since the discovery of crude oil in Nigeria the economy of Nigeria has improved, increasing the GDP through the sales of oil barrels abroad. The paper observes that the blessings from crude oil resource in Nigeria at large takes the form of increased government revenues, increased export earnings, the attendant improvement, opportunities and linkage effects in the economy. However the paper is majorly going to focus on the variables between the increased GDP and the increase poverty level. This paper is of the view that crude oil resource is more of curse than a blessing to the Nigerian economy.