The National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, has announced that illegal and hidden activities such as prostitution and drug peddling will now be included in the country’s Gross Domestic Product, GDP.

according to report, the NBS disclosed this at a sensitization workshop on GDP and Consumer Price Index, CPI Rebasing organised in collaboration with the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG).

Elaborating on the inclusion of illegal and hidden activities in the classification of economic activities for computation of the GDP, the Head of National Accounts, NBS, Dr Baba Madu, said;

‘’Illegal activities will be in line with the national best practices, that is System of National Accounts, SNA 2008.

If you are into, for instance, drugs, there are some countries, it is this drug that is driving their economy. It is illegal here because there is no legal backing. Also, prostitution, they also earn income. Some even live bigger than those in the formal sector. The SNA does not say no to these, it is we. But the challenge is the legal backing and how do we get the data.

And then, of course, the hidden economy. If I ask you, how much do you earn in a month, you will lower your income. Or if somebody is selling provision in a store, and before you know it, he started selling India hemp. Those are the things we are seeing. There are challenges all over the world. But the beauty is that they are less than 3.0 to 3.5% of the GDP.”