Economists and development experts at the Centre for the Study of Economies of Africa (CSEA), a leading economic research and consulting firm with focus on economic trends in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), have set some measures that the Nigerian government needed to undertake to improve the performance of the nation’s economic growth rate.
The researchers, in the firm’s Nigeria Economic Update Issue 46 released on Friday hinged their recommendations on the latest report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) which showed that in the third quarter of 2024, Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 3.46%, representing a 0.92 percentage point rise from the 2.54% recorded in Q3 2023.
According to the Bureau, the non-oil sector, the largest contributor to GDP, grew by 3.37% in Q3 2024.
While growth in the non-oil sector was driven by financial institutions, information and communication technology, agriculture, and trade, among other sectors, the analysts noted that the sector’s contribution to the GDP in Q3 2024 was 94.43%, slightly lower than the 94.52% recorded in the previous quarter.
A further analysis of the statistics agency’s report reflected that the oil sector, which grew by 5.17%, contributed 5.57% to total GDP in Q3 2024, an improvement from the 5.07% recorded in the previous quarter, while the services sector, the main driver of GDP growth in Q3 2024, grew by 5.19% and contributed 53.58% to the aggregate GDP.
The CSEA analysts pointed out that while the growth performance in Q3 remained an improvement over the earlier quarters in the year, it is below the 3.76% growth projection in the 2024 budget, and as the Bureau reported, largely attributed the underperformance to the growth performance in agriculture and the industries. Agricultural sector grew at 1.14% and the industrial sector grew at 2.18%.
They recommended that to achieve an average growth rate of 3.76% in 2024, the government needed to boost production levels in agriculture and industries.
The experts further canvassed: “The government needs to address inefficiencies in the energy sector, particularly in electricity generation, remains critical for long-term economic growth and sustainability.”
