The economy, together with its propellers, oil and gas, concentrated minds in Abuja and Lagos on Wednesday with happy endings.
It emerged that Nigeria�s head long tackle of bread and butter issues has lifted its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to 7.5 per cent, for the first time ever, although that falls short of the 10 per cent envisioned at the beginning of the year.
Double digit inflation has been wrestled down to 6.5 per cent.
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Chukwuma C. Soludo, disclosed the figures at the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting in Abuja.
The angle from Lagos is that revenue from Bonga, the country�s biggest deepwater oil field, may notch N5.289 trillion ($41 billion) in the next 20 years, projected at an annual rate of N258 billion ($2 billion).
National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) which deals with upstream oil investment, said the sums are based on production estimates of 225,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil and 215 million standard cubic feet of natural gas.
The NNPC itself disclosed plans to expand exploration and production operations to East Africa.
The expansion, anticipated next year, aligns with global energy needs, focusing on gains from integrated oil and gas activities.
The NNPC recently signed an agreement with Equatorial Guinea to supply 600 million standard cubic feet of natural gas from 2009.
The revenue estimates came with the announcement by Shell, the operator of the field, of an additional discovery North of Bonga, though it has not released the estimated reserve volume.
Shell, like other offshore operators, holds the field under a Production Sharing Contract (PSC) with the NNPC, which is represented by the NAPIMS.
NAPIMS General Manager for PSC, Abiye Membere, said the field�s output has reached about 220,000 bpd and that its total recoverable reserve is estimated at about one million barrels.
The main reserve could be up to 700 million barrels or 10 per cent of the total.
Bonga Phase I, which houses 18 wells, has been completed; and Phase II, consisting 16 wells, will be ready for startup soon.
Bonga will significantly increase oil and gas and supply gas to the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) train.
The FEC meeting in Abuja was chaired by President Obasanjo.
His Deputy, Atiku Abubakar, stayed away for the second time in a row, despite the quashing of his indictment by the courts the previous day.
The FEC approved a $180 million credit facility from the World Bank for Kano, Bauchi, Rivers, Anambra, Jigawa, and Akwa-Ibom States for the “Malaria Plus Intervention Package.”
Information and National Orientation Minister, Frank Nweke, informed reporters at the end of the meeting that the increase in GDP is significant and is the result of reforms in all sectors of the economy.
Nweke quoted Soludo as confirming that the naira has remained stable against the dollar in the last two years, with the parallel and official foreign exchange (forex) market rates converging.
The economic growth was propelled by diversification through investment in the non-oil sector, which led to a boost in agriculture.
That, stated Nweke, has resulted in self-sufficiency in cassava � with Nigeria now its largest producer in the world � as well as poultry, vegetable oil, among other food crops.
The Economic Intelligence Unit of London and Transparency International (TI) have both noted that the Nigerian economy has potential for huge growth in the nearest future.