The Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector recorded 31.63% year-on-year growth in nominal terms for the first quarter of 2025, according to the latest GDP report from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
This marks a 28.23 percentage point jump compared to the 3.40% growth posted in the same quarter of 2024 and a 13.67-point increase from the last quarter of 2024, showing strong momentum in the sector’s nominal performance.
The sector’s contribution to nominal GDP rose to 10.29% in Q1 2025, up from 9.25% in Q1 2024 and 8.55% in the previous quarter, further solidifying its importance as a growth engine for Nigeria’s economy.
ICT’s expanding role in Nigeria’s economy
In real terms, adjusted for inflation, the sector posted a 7.40% year-on-year growth, improving by 3.36 percentage points from Q1 2024.
However, on a quarter-on-quarter basis, real growth dipped by -8.86%, reflecting the typical seasonal slowdown after Q4’s end-of-year spike in digital consumption and service demands.
- Despite the quarterly dip, the ICT sector’s contribution to real GDP rose to 10.59%, compared to 10.17% in Q1 2024 and 9.32% in Q4 2024.
- The ICT sector, as defined by the NBS, includes Telecommunications and Information Services, Publishing, Motion Picture, Sound Recording and Music Production, and Broadcasting.
- Of these, telecommunications remains the largest and most consistent contributor, buoyed by increased broadband penetration, data consumption, and mobile subscriptions.
Data based on new benchmark
According to the NBS, following the rebasing of the Gross Domestic Product using 2019 as the base year, previous quarterly GDP estimates were benchmarked to the rebased annual estimates to align the old series to the new rebased estimates.
- This procedure provided new quarterly GDP series, which are compared to the 2025 first quarter estimates.
- NBS further disclosed that the rebased nominal GDP at basic prices in 2019 reflected a 41.7% increase over the 2019 nominal GDP calculated using the old 2010 base year.
- This upward revision continued in subsequent years, with the rebased figures showing increases of 39.0% in 2020, 38.7% in 2021, 36.1% in 2022, 34.6% in 2023, and 35.4% in 2024.
- The report noted that the real GDP growth post-rebasing is estimated at -6.96% in 2020 during the COVID pandemic, 0.95% in 2021, 4.32% in 2022, 3.04% in 2023, and 3.38% in 2024.
In January, NBS announced the rebasing of Nigeria’s GDP data, with 2019 selected as the new base year.
This decision, according to the NBS, was driven by the year’s status as a period of “relative economic stability” compared to other recent years, which were marked by significant economic shocks.
