FRI MAY 24 2024-theGBJournal| Nigeria’s economic growth was much stronger than expected in the first quarter of this year, and oil sector growth remained positive, the National Bureau of Statistics reported Friday.
Nigeria’s Gross Domestic product, (a broad measure of goods and services produced) in the first quarter of 2024 rose 2.98% (Q4-23: +3.46% y/y) on annualized pace.
The growth outturn is 10bps higher than Cordros’ estimate (+2.88% y/y).
Aggregate GDP stood at N58,855,142.27 million in nominal terms in the quarter under review, higher when compared to the first quarter of 2023 which recorded aggregate GDP of N51,242,151.21 million, indicating a year-on-year nominal growth of 14.86%.
According to the GDP breakdown provided, the oil sector remained positive, albeit slowed to 5.70% in Q1-24 (Q4-23: +12.11% y/y), amid a 0.9% y/y increase in average crude oil production in Q1-24 (1.54mb/d vs. Q4-23 1.53mb/d | Q1-23: 1.53mb/d).
Consequently, the oil sector contributed 6.38% to the total GDP (Q4-23: 4.70%) during the review period.
Similarly, the non-oil sector grew slower by 2.80% y/y in Q1-24 (Q3-23: +3.07% y/y). Accordingly, the non-oil sector contributed 93.62% to the total GDP (vs 95.30% in Q4-23).
From a sectoral perspective, Agriculture GDP slowed by 0.18% y/y (Q4-23: +2.10% y/y), Industries GDP moderated by 2.19% y/y (Q4-23: +3.86% y/y), while Services GDP increased to 4.32% y/y (Q4-23: +3.98% y/y).
In terms of contributions, Services, Agriculture, and Industries had a total of 58.04%, 21.07% and 20.89% of overall output growth, respectively.
The strong first-quarter figure points to possibility of achieving the country’s World Bank target of 3.3% for the year.
Economists however, warn that the growth prospects hinge on broadening the economy’s growth drivers.
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