Nigeria belongs to the west African region of Africa. Nigeria’s large population makes up about 60% of the population of west Africa. Nigeria is by far the biggest economy in West Africa and the region’s largest market for goods and trade. It is the single largest financial contributor to the region’s economic community. Nigeria should be more than the regions hub; it is the regions commercial and trade destination. Lagos the commercial capital of Nigeria is the main financial centre of West Africa, and about one out of two West Africans is from Nigeria. As the largest military power in the region, Nigeria played a central role in the ECOWAS efforts to end the civil wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone. ECOWAS headquarters are based in Abuja.
A large part of West African economic activity is concentrated in Nigeria. Cross-border activities closely link southern Niger to the Hausa economy, Benin, and Togo benefit from the major economic activity between Lagos and Ibadan. Cameroon and Chad’s economies are also strongly oriented towards the Nigerian market. Nigeria has an important economic influence on the entire region, including the franc zone where it has increasingly been making investments (particularly in the banking sector). The stock exchange in Lagos is the only large-scale financial trading centre in the region. Nigeria is also the largest cereal and meat producer in West Africa. Agriculture accounts for almost one third of GDP.
