…As Non-Oil Sector Contributes 96.03% To GDP
Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 3.13% (year-on-year) in real terms in the first quarter of 2025, higher than the 2.27% recorded in the first quarter of 2024, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has reported.
The statistics agency in its report titled ‘Nigerian Gross Domestic Product Q1 2025’ released on Monday, 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, indicated that the performance of the GDP in the quarter under review was driven mainly by the Services sector, which recorded a growth of 4.33% and contributed 57.50% to the aggregate GDP.
Briefing journalists on the findings in the rebased GDP report at the ‘Statistics House’ in Abuja, the Statistician-General of the Federation/CEO of the NBS, Prince Adeyemi Adeniran, said the rebasing procedure provided new quarterly GDP series, which are compared to the 2025 first quarter estimates, and reflected the factual data of the nation’s economy.
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Adeniran, who elaborately spoke on the methodology and innovative modalities used by the Bureau to source for the data, collate, interpret and produce the rebased GDP report, said the figures were purely based on professionalism and global best practices adopted by the Bureau without any political influences from any quarter.
According to him, in the quarter under review, the nation’s agriculture sector grew by 0.07%, from the growth of -1.79% recorded in the first quarter of 2024 while the industrial sector’s growth rose to 3.42%, from 2.35% recorded in the first quarter of 2024.
He explained that in terms of share of the GDP, the Services and Industry sectors contributed more to the aggregate GDP in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the corresponding quarter of last year, and that aggregate GDP at basic price stood at N94,051,733.20 million in nominal terms during the quarter.
The NBS’ boss maintained that the sector’s contribution was higher when compared to the first quarter of 2024, which recorded an aggregate GDP of N79,505,265.15 million, indicating a year-on-year nominal growth of 18.30%.
Speaking on the performance of the economy based on the oil and non-oil sectors, the Statistician-General of the Federation reported that in Q1 2025, the Oil Sector recorded an average daily oil production of 1.62 million barrels per day (mbpd), higher than the daily average production of 1.57 mbpd recorded in the same quarter of 2024 by 0.05 mbpd and higher than the Q4 2024 production volume of 1.54 mbpd by 0.08mbpd.
He further clarified that the real growth of the oil sector was 1.87% (year-on-year) in Q1 2025, indicating a decrease of 2.85% points relative to the 4.71% rate recorded in Q1 2024, even as the sector’s growth dipped by 0.22% points when compared to Q4 2024, which was 2.08%.
Similarly, Adeniran disclosed that on a quarter-on-quarter basis, the oil sector recorded a growth rate of 13.81% in Q1 2025. The Oil sector contributed 3.97% to the total real GDP in Q1 2025, down from the figure recorded in the corresponding period of 2024 at 4.02%, and up from the preceding quarter when it contributed 2.80%.
Conversely, he reported that the non-oil sector grew by 3.19% in real terms in Q1 2025, higher by 1.02% points compared to the rate recorded in Q1 2024, which was 2.17% and lower than the 3.80% recorded in Q$ 2024.
Adeniran attributed the key drivers of the sector’s growth in the quarter under review to Information and Communication (Telecommunications); Agriculture (Crop production); Real Estate; Financial and Insurance (Financial Institutions); Trade; Construction; and Manufacturing (Food, Beverage and Tobacco), accounting for positive GDP growth.
He reported that in real terms, the non-oil sector contributed 96.03% to the nation’s GDP in the first quarter of 2025, higher than the share recorded in the first quarter of 2024, which was 95.98% and lower than the fourth quarter of 2024 recorded as 97.20%.
A further decomposition of the GDP growth on major economic sectors by the NBS’ CEO showed that the Mining and Quarrying sector grew nominally by -5.33% (year-on-year) in Q1 2025, with the Metal Ore activity exhibiting the highest growth rate of all the sub-activities at 83.55%, followed by Quarrying and Other Mining activity at 56.13% just as Crude Petroleum and Natural gas was the main contributor to the sector with a weight of 89.16% in the quarter.
On Agriculture Sector performance, he reported that the sector grew by 10.04% year-on-year in nominal terms in Q1 2025, showing an increase of 7.87% points from Q1 2024 and that Crop production remained the major driver of the sector, accounting for 64.57% of the overall nominal value of the sector in the quarter under review.
Adeniran said that the Manufacturing Sector recorded nominal GDP growth of 42.40% (year-on-year) in Q1 2925, 35.09% points higher than the 7.31% growth it recorded in Q1 2024, and 29.25% points higher than the preceding quarter figure of 13.14%. On the sector’s real GDP growth in the quarter, he revealed that it grew by 1.69% (year-on-year), higher than Q1 2024 and Q4 2024 by 0.11% points and 0.41% points respectively.
In addition, he told journalists that the Electricity, Gas, Steam and Air conditioning Supply sector recorded a year-on-year growth of – 23.52% in the first quarter of 2025, but that in real terms, the sector grew by 18.65% in Q1 2025, representing increase when compared to the growth rate of 2.49% recorded in Q1 2024.
According to the Statistician-General of the Federation, the contribution of this sector to real GDP in Q1 2025 was 0.35%, higher than the 0.30% recorded in Q1 2024 and lower than the 0.76% recorded in Q4 2024.
He reported that the Water Supply, Sewerage, Waste Management and Remediation sector grew by 36.07% in nominal terms (year-on-year) in the first quarter of 2025, an increase of 0.33% points compared to the rate of 35.74% recorded in the same quarter of 2024, adding the in real terms the sector recorded at 9.43% (year-on-year), higher by 3.01% points from the rate recorded in the previous year.
The sector’s contribution to total real GDP was 0.25% in the first quarter of 2025, higher than its contribution of 0.24% in Q1 2024, and higher than Q4 2024 when it contributed 0.17%.
Adeniran also gave data on the contributions of other sectors, namely Construction; Trade; Accommodation and Food Services; Transportation and Storage; Information and Communications; Arts, Entertainment and Recreation; Real Estate Services; Finance and Insurance; Professional, Scientific and Technical Services; Administrative and Support Services; Public Administration; Education; Human Health and Social Services; and Other Services to the GDP during the quarter under review.
He thanked the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Planning and Economic Development, development partners and other stakeholders for the support given to the NBS during the rebasing exercise and urged the public to feel free to contact the Bureau for clarification on any area of the rebased GDP as they may consider necessary in their usage of the data for planning and development.
