Nigeria Grows Economy by 2.27% in 2019, Posts 2.55% GDP Growth in Q4

February 24, 2020
GDP Nigeria growth

By Adedapo Adesanya

Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 2.55 percent (year-on-year) in real terms in the fourth quarter of 2019, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) disclosed on Monday, February 24, 2020.

According to the stats office, the strong Q4 2019 growth rate also represented the highest quarterly growth performance since the 2016 recession, which was -1.6 percent.

In its report today, the NBS said in 2019, the nation’s economy, which is the largest in Africa, improved by 2.27 percent in contrast to the 1.91 percent growth posted in 2018.

It noted that in Q4 2019, the GDP improved by 0.17 percent points when compared with the Q4 2018 figures, which stood 2.38 percent. The NBS further said the GDP rose by 0.27 percent from the third quarter of 2019, with a quarter on quarter real GDP growth of 5.59 percent.

The NBS disclosed that in Q4 2019, aggregate GDP stood at N39.6 trillion in nominal terms. This was higher than Q4 2018 which recorded an aggregate of N35.2 trillion, representing year-on-year nominal growth rate of 12.34 percent.

This rate was –0.31 percent points lower in comparison to the rate recorded in Q4 2018 and –0.96 percent points lower than the rate recorded in the Q3 2019.

In the Nigerian oil sector during Q4 2019, an average daily oil production of 2.00 million barrels per day (mbpd) was recorded, indicating a rise of 0.09 mbpd over the daily average production of 1.91 mbpd recorded in Q4 2018.

However, this was – 0.04 mbpd lower than the production volume of 2.04 mbpd recorded in the third quarter of 2019, largely due to an obligatory cut instituted by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

Despite this, oil production remained consistently at or above 2.0 mbpd all through 2019.

It said the oil sector contributed 8.78 percent to real GDP last year while on the other hand, the annual contribution of the non-oil sector stood at 91.22 percent.

In terms of  total real GDP in Q4 2019, it contributed 7.32 percent up from the corresponding period of 2018 but down compared Q3 2019, where it contributed 7.06 percent and 9.77 percent respectively.

The non-oil sector grew by 2.26 percent in real terms during Q4 2019. This was lower by –0.44 percent points compared to the rate recorded in the Q4 2018 but 0.42 percent point higher than the third quarter of 2019.

In Q4 2019 , this sector was driven mainly by Information and Communication, (Telecommunications), Agriculture (Crop Production), Financial and Insurance Services (Financial Institutions), and Manufacturing.

In real terms, the non-oil sector contributed 92.68 percent to the nation’s GDP in the fourth quarter of 2019, lower from shares recorded in the fourth quarter of 2018 (92.94 percent) but higher than the third quarter of 2019 (90.23 percent).

Adedapo Adesanya

Adedapo Adesanya is a journalist, polymath, and connoisseur of everything art. When he is not writing, he has his nose buried in one of the many books or articles he has bookmarked or simply listening to good music with a bottle of beer or wine. He supports the greatest club in the world, Manchester United F.C.

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