Nigeria’s GDP growth rate slowed to 2.98% in Q1 2024, says NBS

By Abubakar Yunusa

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) says Nigeria’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 2.98 percent in the first quarter (Q1) of 2024.
The growth rate, the bureau said, is higher than the 2.31 percent recorded in the same quarter in 2023 but lower than the 3.46 percent recorded in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2023.
NBS made this known on Friday in its GDP report for Q1 2024.
According to the bureau, the performance of the GDP in Q1 was driven mainly by the services sector, which recorded a growth of 4.32 percent and contributed 58.04 percent to the aggregate GDP.
“The agriculture sector grew by 0.18%, from the growth of -0.90% recorded in the first quarter of 2023,” NBS said.
“The growth of the industry sector was 2.19%, an improvement from 0.31% recorded in the first quarter of 2023. In terms of share of the GDP, the services sector contributed more to the aggregate GDP in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the corresponding quarter of 2023.”
The statistics body further said in the quarter under review, the aggregate GDP stood at N58.8 trillion in nominal terms.
This, NBS said, is higher when compared to the first quarter of 2023, which recorded aggregate GDP of N51.2 trillion, indicating a year-on-year nominal growth of 14.86 percent.
In the report, NBS said the country, in the first quarter recorded an average daily oil production of 1.57 million barrels per day (mbpd).
This is 0.02mbpd higher than the fourth quarter production volume of 1.55 mbpd.
Also, the daily average production of 1.57mbpd in Q1 is higher by 0.06mbpd when compared to the 1.51mbpd recorded in the same quarter last year.
“The real growth of the oil sector was 5.70% (year-on-year) in Q1 2024, indicating an increase of 9.91% points relative to the rate recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2023 (-4.21%),” the bureau said.
“Growth decreased by 6.41% points when compared to Q4 2023 which was 12.11%. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, the oil sector recorded a growth rate of 13.77% in Q1 2024.”
The report also revealed that the oil sector contributed 6.38 percent to the total real GDP in Q1, compared to 6.21 percent in the corresponding period of 2023 and 4.70 percent in Q4.
The non-oil sector contribution dropped by 1.6 percent in Q1 and contributed 93.62 percent to the economic growth.
The non-oil sector, which includes information and communication (telecommunication) sector topped the contribution, trade, agriculture (crop production), financial and insurance (financial institutions), manufacturing (food, beverage and tobacco), real estate and construction, and accounting, contributed positively to the GDP growth.
The sector’s contribution to the nation’s Q1 GDP figure is lower than 95.30 percent recorded in Q4 2023, as well as the corresponding quarter of 2023, which was 93.79 percent.