Nigerian Geography and Economy

Juan Rodríguez
1/25/11
Period 7
Nigerian geography & economy
Nigeria is a country in Western Africa, bordering the Gulf of Guinea, between Benin and Cameroon with a total area of 923,768 square kilometers, an area slightly more than twice the size of California in which the terrain consists of southern lowlands, central hills, and plateaus, with mountains in the southeast and plains in the north. Much of Nigeria's surface consists of ancient rocks. Having been subject to weathering and erosion for long periods, the landscape of this area is long stretches of flat plains with the occasional granite mountain. These features form a major landscape type of Nigeria and of West Africa.
The 12th largest producer of petroleum products in the world, with the industry accounting for almost 80% of their GDP, or Gross Domestic Product, and above 90% of the total exports, the most important resource is petroleum and not only that but the country is in economic ruins due to their overdependence on petroleum products and the crash of oil stocks in the world in recent years. But the main problems for Nigeria are the prevalence of poverty and lack of industrial resources.
The already struggling agricultural sector of their economy had failed to keep up with an extremely rapid population growth and Nigeria being Africa's most populated country failed its people and Nigeria, “once a large net exporter of food, now must import food following the signing of an IMF stand-by agreement in August of 2000.”