Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 3.46% year-on-year in real terms during the third quarter of 2024, according to the latest report from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
This marks a notable increase from the 2.54% growth recorded in the corresponding period of 2023 and an improvement from the 3.19% growth observed in the second quarter of 2024.
The growth in Q3 2024 was primarily driven by the Services sector, which expanded by 5.19% and accounted for 53.58% of the aggregate GDP.
This highlights the sector’s growing importance in Nigeria’s economic landscape as a growth in the sector more often than not leads to an overall growth in the economy.
Sectoral Performance
The Services sector played a dominant role in driving the economy, contributing a larger share of the aggregate GDP compared to the same quarter in 2023. Its 5.19% growth highlights its resilience and capacity to spur overall economic performance.
- The Agriculture sector recorded a modest growth of 1.14%, slightly below the 1.30% growth reported in Q3 2023.
- The Industry sector posted a growth rate of 2.18%, showing significant improvement from the 0.46% recorded in Q3 2023.
- The aggregate GDP at basic prices stood at N71.13 trillion in nominal terms in Q3 2024, reflecting a 17.26% year-on-year nominal growth from the N60.66 trillion recorded in Q3 2023.
Non-Oil Sector Performance
The non-oil sector grew by 3.37% in real terms in Q3 2024, exceeding the 2.75% growth recorded in Q3 2023 and the 2.80% growth in Q2 2024.
- The sector was buoyed by activities in financial services, telecommunications, crop production, road transport, trade, and construction.
- However, the key driver for economic growth lies in the Financial Institutions sub-sector which grew by a whopping 31.92% in the third quarter of 2024.
- The sector ranks 8th in terms of contribution to GDP thus having a significant impact on economic growth.
In real terms, the non-oil sector contributed 94.43% to Nigeria’s GDP in Q3 2024, slightly lower than the 94.52% recorded in Q3 2023 but higher than the 94.30% recorded in Q2 2024.
Oil sector highlights
Nigeria’s average daily oil production increased to 1.47 million barrels per day (mbpd) in Q3 2024, up from 1.45 mbpd in Q3 2023 and 1.41 mbpd in Q2 2024.
- The real growth of the oil sector stood at 5.17% year-on-year, marking an improvement of 6.02 percentage points from the -0.85% recorded in Q3 2023.
- However, this represents a decline from the 10.15% growth posted in Q2 2024 as Nigeria continues to struggle with ramping up crude oil output.
- The oil sector contributed 5.57% to the total real GDP in Q3 2024, higher than the 5.48% recorded in Q3 2023 but lower than the 5.70% contribution in Q2 2024.
What you should know
The IMF stated that the Nigerian Economy is projected to grow at about 2.9% for the full year 2024 citing rising inflation and exchange rate pressures.
- However, in real terms the economy has grown by an estimated 3.22% year to date (first 9 months of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023).
- The Nigerian economy also does well in the fourth quarter of the year having grown above 3% every year since 2021.
Meanwhile, the federal government announced plans to rebase the country’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) and GDP by 2025 to enhance policy accuracy and boost investor confidence.
- According to a statement from the Ministry of Finance, the plans are being concluded with the Statistician General of the Federation, Adeyemi Adeniran, and his team.
- The Ministry noted that the rebasing effort would deliver economic benefits for the country and boost investor confidence by providing a clearer and more reliable depiction of the economy.
