Agriculture:
Nigeria’s agricultural sector employs nearly 70% of the population and contributes nearly 22% of GDP. Nigeria possesses an abundance of arable land and a favorable climate to produce nuts, fruits and grains.
Most farming in Nigeria is subsistence based, utilizing manual labor and relatively little agricultural machinery.
Absent any organized and concerted public and/or private sector efforts to modernize the sector and access regional and global commodity markets, growth opportunities for U.S. products serving Nigeria’s agribusiness sector are relatively few at present. Land ownership, transport, and lack of infrastructure issues are major barriers to entry for starting an agro-farming business in Nigeria.
Many multi-national companies have instead engaged in agro-processing business, which are in large demand.
Healthcare :
The Nigerian healthcare system has few modern facilities. As a result, the country loses millions every year to medical tourism with Nigerians travelling abroad for medical procedures.
Prospects exist for investment in hospitals and clinics with treatment capabilities and cutting-edge medical technologies.
Power Sector :
The power sector neither meets the existing demand of the country’s population and
businesses nor delivers uninterrupted reliable electricity. Today, 23 grid-connected generating plants are in the country with a total installed capacity of 12,500 megawatts (MW) with a daily operational average near 4,000 MW.
The government plans to improve access to electricity from 45% to about 90% by 2030 and through series of power sector reforms and policy initiatives is focused on promoting efficiency in the sector to attract private investment, increase generation, and resolve critical issues adversely impacting the sector.
Despite challenges, there have been measured improvements in the industry. The Azura-Edo 461MW independent power project became operational in May 2018 and currently delivers up to 10 percent of the country’s on-grid power.
Infrastructure:
Nigeria's publicly-owned and operated transportation infrastructure is a major constraint to economic development. The principal ports are in Lagos (Apapa and Tin Can Island), Port Harcourt, and Calabar.
While the Government of Nigeria has opened the ports sector for participation by the private sector, to ensure effective management and operation through concession agreements, the government still manages the rail and roads sectors.
A sound legal framework and reforms are needed to allow Public and Private Partnerships (PPPs) to move forward in the rail and roads sector.
Of the 50,000 kilometers of roads, only slightly more than 10,000 kilometers are paved, and many of these paved roads are in poor condition.
Only five of Nigeria's twenty-two airports—Lagos, Kano, Port Harcourt, Enugu, and Abuja—currently receive international commercial flights. Haj flights fly out of Yola to Saudi Arabia, but these are charter flights. Lagos is working towards establishing itself as a regional hub.
Nigeria’s railway currently has eight lines that are slightly more than 2,000 miles long collectively. These railways require major rehabilitation, modernization, and expansion.
In 2010, the Government of Nigeria launched a 25-year strategic plan to revive the country’s railway system and commissioned various railway projects through concession agreements with state-owned Chinese companies.
Many of these projects have never reached financial close due to underlying corruption issues in the procurement process and public-sector infrastructure funding shortages.
The Lagos-Abuja line, the Kaduna-Abuja passenger line and the Kaduna-Abuja line are the only three operational lines currently.
An American company supplied 25 locomotives for the Lagos-Abuja line. In April 2018, the Government of Nigeria and General Electric (GE) signed a $45 million interim rail concession (while negotiating a $2 billion concession to supply and operate locomotives) to refurbish the Lagos to Kano rail line.
The interim concession may grow to include the Port Harcourt to Maiduguri line. Nigeria has plans to participate in the AfricaRail project by upgrading the gauge of the rail lines consistent with neighboring rail systems.
AfricaRail is a project to rehabilitate and construct twelve hundred new miles of railway linking Cote d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Niger, Benin, Togo, and Nigeria at an estimated cost of $2 billion.
Services:
Nigeria’s services output ranks as the 63rd largest worldwide and fifth largest in Africa. The potential of the Nigerian financial services sector remains enormous, and foreign banks are becoming increasingly attracted to the market.
However, most of Nigeria's population has only limited access to financial services – a problem compounded by high levels of bureaucracy required to complete even simple transactions.
The Nigerian Government aims to push ahead with reforms of the insurance and pension industries.
Consumer Products:
Nigeria is an increasingly important market and manufacturing center for the African consumer product sector.
Nigeria is currently home to a growing middle class now estimated to be about 50 million, and it is a clear leader in the regional economic grouping ECOWAS and regionalization efforts. There is a wide range of fast-moving U.S. products in the Nigerian market from both large and small companies.
The promise of this market has supported several U.S. companies’ manufacturing plants in Nigeria. Major challenges to companies in the consumer products sector in Nigeria include protectionist policies and lack of adequate intellectual property rights protection.
Information and Communications’ Technology (ICT): Nigeria is Africa’s largest ICT market, accounting for 29% of internet usage in Africa. In June 2018, the Nigerian Communications Commission reported that Nigeria had more than 160 million active mobile telecoms subscribers of GSM and CDMA.
Mobile GSM subscribers account for 98.37% of the total number of telecom subscribers. Fiber optic expansion is currently taking place in Lagos and Abuja; however, expansion in rural areas continues to be hampered as telecom providers await pending legislation on “right of way” protection for telecom infrastructure.
There are four main GSM networks in Nigeria: Airtel, MTN, Globacom, and 9mobile while a new entrant - NTEL is operating a 4G LTE only network.
Code division multiple access (CDMA) was operated by two companies - Visafone and Multilinks but Visafone has since transferred its subscribers to MTN thereby making the GSM platform Nigeria’s main mobile telecommunications channel.
