1.3  Objectives and structure of the paper  This lecture, therefore, seeks to examine the growth prospects for the Nigerian economy in the short-to-medium-term perspective, in the light of its relatively poor economic performance since independence and her abundant natural and human resources.
Following this introduction, section 2 shares some thoughts on economic development, while section 3 reviews the Nigerian economy in perspective, through policy regimes to the nature and structure of the economy and performance trends. The challenges facing the Nigerian economy are discussed in section 4, while the economic prospects are discussed in section 5. Section 6 concludes the lecture. 2.