The Federal Government has said that the emergence of South Africa as the largest economy in Africa, a position that Nigeria held up until last week would make the government work harder to regain its lost glory.

The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udo Udoma, stated this while speaking shortly after receiving the report of the three-day pre-summit workshop from the Infrastructure Public Private Partnership Summit Group.

Using the Gross Domestic Product at the end of 2015, published by the International Monetary Fund, the size of South Africa’s economy was $301bn, while Nigeria’s GDP was $296bn

But Udoma said that instead of lamenting that the country had lost its position as the largest economy in Africa, it should serve as a boost to galvanise support for the efforts of the government in achieving economic development.

He said, “We are determined to turn this economy around and stimulate private sector investments. Losing our position as the biggest economy in Africa should in some way inspire us to work even harder. Sometimes when you are number two, you are actually more motivated to work hard and we should see it as something that should motivate all of us to work harder.