A long overdue rebasing of gross domestic product (GDP), the first since 1990, has seen Nigeria overtake South Africa as Africa’s largest economy. The rebasing process, which now sets 2010 as the calculation benchmark, has added $240bn to GDP, representing an increase of 89%, far higher than the 40-60% expected. Revised GDP for 2013 is now $510bn, significantly higher than South Africa’s $370.3bn, making Nigeria the 24th largest economy in the world. The rebasing exercise, which the United Nations Statistical Commission recommends should occur every five years, takes into account new industries, such as the booming telecoms sector (in 1990, there were only 300,000 landlines, while today there are over 100m mobile phone subscribers)