Nigeria
In terms of natural resources in Western Africa, Nigeria is one of the countries where natural resources are plentiful and useful in the entire Western Africa region. For example, some of Nigerias’ resources consist of Natural gas, petroleum, tin, iron ore, coal, Limestone, Niobium, Lead, Zinc, and Arable land. Furthermore, Nigeria is known for its vast amounts of oil. It is one of the most abundant resources in the region. In fact, Nigeria is Africa’s Largest oil producer in addition to the 6th largest in the world at approximately 2.5 million barrels per day. Today, Nigeria’s reserves of crude oil are approximately at 28.2 billion barrels, natural gas reserves total at 165 trillion cubic feet with and including around 75.4 trillion SCF of nonassociated gas. In addition, oil accounts for well over 90% of exports in Nigeria. As a result, this makes the Nigerian economy heavily reliant on oil exports. About 10 years ago, the United States was the primary buyers of Nigerias oil, but once the US came more self-sufficient due to fracking, the Nigerian economy saw a significant decrease for a couple of years. This is causing a crash in the economy, but also many other issues have arisen from oil in Nigeria. First, the government has inherited a massive debt from distributors which have caused them to struggle financially. Next, it is sparking a currency crisis. With Nigeria experiencing a currency crisis, the distributors are struggling to get their hands on dollars to pay for fuel imports. This, in return, is causing people to turn to the black market as a resource, which can raise the prices significantly. Another issue that oil has caused this country is oil spills. As we know, oil spills are very harmful to not only the economy but to the earth as well. In terms of economy, oil spills affect it tremendously. All of the oil spills result in a loss of oil, which means losing out on a bunch of money that they could be making on exports. The demand for oil will always be high, but new resources are cutting into the benefit of oil, which is causing a decrease in the Nigerian economy. Nigeria will soon have to find a different resource to rely on because the demand for oil is decreasing at a rapid rate in favor of more accessible, more effective natural resources. In conclusion, oil is very essential to Nigeria, but the problem is that it will be in less demand, and that will cause harm to their economy as a whole, and they need to find a solution.
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- West African Natural Resources Jennifer Coronado
