Recent statistics by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shows that Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rose by 3.11% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2022. For the sixth year in a row, Nigeria’s economy is experiencing a continuous increase in its GDP.
Driving the news
According to NBS, the growth rate of this year’s GDP is 0.51% higher than that recorded in the preceding year, 2021 and 0.88% lesser than the fourth quarter of 2021.
- The oil sector, Nigeria’s major income stream, shrunk by 26.04% in comparison with the Q1 of 2022.
- The non-oil sector of the economy experienced a 6.08% growth rate in Q1 2022 in comparison with Q1 of 2021. And the rate was 5.28% higher than that of Q1 2022 and 1.34% lesser than the fourth quarter of 2021.
What you should know
- The non-oil sector of the country’s economy including telecommunications, trade, financial institutions, agriculture, and the manufacturing industries contributed 93.37% to Nigeria’s GDP while the oil sector accounted only for 6.63% of the GDP in the first quarter of 2022.
- The low contribution of the oil sector was as a result of Nigeria failing to retain or surpass the average daily production of 1.72mbpd recorded in Q1 2021, as it recorded 1.49mbpd with a deficit of 0.23mbpd from the preceding year under review.
What this means
Over the past six years, the consistent growth in the country’s GDP can be attributed to the federal government’s policies and projects in the non-oil sector largely comprising the telecommunication, banking, and agricultural sectors. To Nigerians the rising GDP means the commencement of a long way back to a stable and better economy.