ICT Contributes 13.1%, N2.6trn to Nigeria GDP Growth in Q4 2019

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Information and Communication Technology (Telecommunications) sector contribution to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the fourth quarter of 2019 increased to N2.6 trillion. This contribution was part of the N19.5 trillion in the last quarter of last year.

The Nigerian GDP data, which was released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday, showed that in the last quarter of 2019, the economy rose to 2.55 percent and as a major driver of the non-oil Sector, the sector recorded a growth rate of 8.5 percent in real terms, year on year.

This indicated that the ICT sector in the fourth quarter contributed more than what the oil sector added to the GDP, 7.3 percent, reducing the dominance of oil in the figures.

From total real GDP, the sector contributed 13.1 percent in Q4 2019, higher than 12.4 percent contributed in the same quarter of the previous year, 2018, and higher than 11.3 percent it contributed in the preceding quarter, Q3 2019.

For the full year 2019, the sector contribution stood at 13.0 percent, higher than the 2018 rate of 12.2 percent. Quarter on quarter, the sector exhibited a growth rate of 22.2 percent in real terms, while the 2019 annual growth rate was recorded at 9.2 percent.

The figures comprise four activities in the Telecommunications and Information Services; Publishing; Motion Picture, Sound Recording and Music Production; and Broadcasting sub-sectors.

Telecommunications & Information Services under Information and Communication sector grew by 10.3 percent in Q4 2019 from 12.2 percent in Q3 2019 and compared with Q4 2018, 16.67 percent. Telecommunications then grew by 11.4 percent in full year 2019 from 11.3 percent in 2018.

Publishing under the sector grew by 3.1 percent in Q4 2019 from 2.9 percent in the preceding quarter and 3.8 percent in Q4 2018. In FY 2019 Publishing grew by 2.6 percent in full year 2019 compared to 6.0 percent in 2018.

Motion Pictures, Sound recording and Music production under the sector grew by 0.8 percent in Q4 2019 from 1.0 percent in Q3 2019 and 0.6 in the fourth quarter of the previous year, growing by 0.2 percent in 2019 from -0.4 percent in 2018.

Under Broadcasting, the sector grew by 2.2 percent in Q4 2019 from 0.9 percent in Q3 2019 and 2.0 percent in Q4 2018, recording a yearly growth of 2.3 percent in 2019 compared to 7.4 percent in 2018.