Niger is a landlocked country in West Africa covering 1,266,700km2, ranking as the 19th largest in the world by land area. The terrain is mainly desert with arable land in the South West and South East of the country and its economy is focused around subsistence agriculture and raw commodity export
Niger key statistics
26.1m
Population1
US$15.2bn
GDP1
11.1%
GDP growth1
US$584
GDP per capita1
Economy and growth strategy
Niger has made significant economic progress in the last decade, now reaching a GDP per capita of US$5841, ranking 237th out of 245 countries by the World Bank, but significant social, economic, and demographic challenges remain.
Hydrocarbons have become the driving force of the Nigerien economy, and hydrocarbon revenues are being reinvested in basic social sectors, such as public health, education, agriculture and infrastructure.
Potential of the oil industry in Niger
Niger has significant geological potential, but to date this has been largely under-explored:
- 90% of the territory is covered by two sedimentary basins (the Western Basin and the Eastern Basin), with most of the exploration having been focused in the Eastern Basin;
- Despite the recent exploration successes in the Agadem and Kafra Basins, where the majority of the discoveries were made in the shallowest Tertiary sequence, the Eastern Basins remain largely under-explored. Significant potential exists in the adjacent basins and the deeper Cretaceous sequence; and
- There has been little exploration in the east of the country due to the previous absence of export solutions and lack of technical data.
1 IMF, 2022.
