Presidency Faults AfDB’s Adesina’s Claim Of Nigerians Better Off In 1960s

The Presidency has rejected a recent assertion by the outgoing President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, who claimed that Nigerians were better off economically at the time of independence in 1960 than today.

Responding via a post on his verified X handle, the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, described Adesina’s statement as misleading and based on incorrect economic data.

Dr. Adesina had reportedly said that Nigeria’s GDP per capita had declined from $1,847 in 1960 to $824 in 2024, painting a picture of retrogression in the living standards of Nigerians.

However, Onanuga dismissed the figures, pointing out that credible historical data placed Nigeria’s GDP per capita in 1960 at just $93, not $1,847.

“According to available data, our country’s GDP was $4.2 billion in 1960, and per capita income for a population of 44.9 million was $93 — ninety-three, not even one hundred dollars,” Onanuga said.

He argued that Nigeria’s economic size began to grow significantly in the 1970s, largely due to oil revenues, peaking in 2014 with a rebased GDP per capita of $3,200.

Onanuga emphasised that GDP per capita alone does not provide a holistic picture of societal progress.

He noted that the metric does not reflect income inequality, wealth distribution, the informal economy, or improvements in quality of life such as access to education, healthcare, and telecommunications.

“GDP masks many activities in a country’s economy. It neither discloses wealth distribution or income inequality nor accounts for the informal economy, which experts have said is enormous,” he said.

Highlighting tangible improvements since 1960, the presidential aide pointed to advances in infrastructure, education, and healthcare.

Onanuga noted that the number of schools and medical facilities had increased dramatically, and access to telecommunication had surged from under 20,000 telephone lines at independence to near-universal access to mobile and digital services today.

“When Vodacom considered entering the Nigerian market in 1999 or 2000, its consultants, using the available GDP metrics, advised against it. MTN and other companies that entered the market later proved them wrong,” Onanuga said, citing MTN’s N1 trillion revenue and 84 million subscribers in Q1 2025 as evidence of Nigeria’s evolving economic strength.

“No objective observer can claim that Nigeria has not made progress since 1960,” he added. “Today, as we await the NBS’s recalibration of our GDP, we can comfortably say without contradiction that it is at least 50 times, if not 100 times, more than it was at Independence.”

While acknowledging Dr. Adesina’s global standing as a development expert, the Presidency insisted that his recent comments fell short of reflecting the broader realities of Nigeria’s socioeconomic transformation over the past six decades.