Nigeria’s GDP grew by 2.98% in the first quarter, driven by growth in the services sector

The Nigerian economy grew at a faster pace in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the same period last year, official data released on Friday showed.

Africa’s largest economy recorded real gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 2.98 percent (year-on-year) in the first quarter, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. The growth rate was higher than 2.31%. recorded in the first quarter of 2023 and lower than the growth in the fourth quarter of 2023, which amounted to 3.46%.

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“The GDP results in the first quarter of 2024 were mainly influenced by the services sector, which recorded a growth of 4.32%. and had 58.04 percent. share in total GDP,” we read in the report.

The agriculture sector was found to have grown by 0.18 percent compared to the -0.90 percent growth recorded in the first quarter of 2023.

“The growth of the industrial sector was 2.19 percent, an improvement from 0.31 percent. recorded in the first quarter of 2023. In terms of share in GDP, the services sector contributed more to total GDP in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the same quarter of 2023,” the report said.

Analysts had previously predicted that the economy would grow faster compared to the same period last year due to the expansion of the monthly Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI).

“If we look at the PMI, there is an improvement compared to the first quarter of 2023. Unlike the first quarter of last year, which saw a liquidity crunch, the first quarter of this year did not record any stress in economic activity. So we expect growth in the non-oil sector,” said Bolade Agboola, energy and consumer growth analyst at ChapelHill Denham.

She added that crude oil production recorded a slight improvement compared to the first quarter of last year and is also expected to contribute positively to economic production in the first quarter of 2024.