Nigeria surpasses SA GDP after rebasing economy

Nigeria has "rebased" its gross domestic product (GDP) data, which has pushed it above South Africa as the continent's biggest economy, reports the global business press.
Nigerian GDP now includes previously uncounted industries like telecoms, information technology, music, online sales, airlines, and film production. According to a report by Bloomberg News, the size of the economy is estimated at US$491 billion for 2013. This was the figure quoted by Yemi Kale, head of the National Bureau of Statistics, on Sunday at a news conference to release the report in the capital, Abuja. This compares with South Africa's GDP of $370.3bn at the end of 2013.
However, according to the BBC, some economists point out that Nigeria's economic output is underperforming because at 170 million people, its population is three times larger than South Africa's. On a per-capita basis, South Africa's GDP numbers are three times larger than Nigeria's.
The daily online site quotes Nigerian financial analyst Bismarck Rewane as saying: "The Nigerian population is not better off tomorrow because of that announcement. It doesn't put more money in the bank, more food in their stomach. It changes nothing."