ABSTRACT
Chapter 1 outlines the economic backdrop of Nigeria’s frontier market, its opportunities and its challenges. The chapter starts by distinguishing frontier markets from emerging markets. It shows the diversity of frontier economies by comparing key economic and market indicators of the largest frontier economies with emerging market economies and the advanced economies such as the United States. Nigeria is a leading frontier market that is featured in all existing frontier markets indices – Standard & Poor’s, Morgan Stanley Composite Index, Russell Investments and Financial Times. Nigeria is not only Africa’s largest frontier economy; it is also the largest world frontier market by population and gross domestic product size. Nigeria is projected by the United Nations to have a population behind only China and India by 2050.
