According to the latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria’s GDP growth rate dropped to 2.31% year-on-year, a decline from the 3.52% recorded in Q4 2022. The rate is also lower than the 3.11% recorded in Q1 2022.
The NBS report attributes the growth decline to the adverse impacts of the cash crunch encountered during the quarter.
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The Services sector played a significant role in the performance of Nigeria’s GDP in the first quarter of 2023. It grew by 4.35% and contributed 57.29% to the overall GDP. While the agriculture sector recorded a decline of -0.90%, lower than the 3.16% growth rate recorded in Q1 2022.
In the first quarter of 2023, Nigeria’s oil sector saw an increase in average daily oil production. It reached 1.51 million barrels per day (mbpd), surpassing the daily average production of 1.49 mbpd in Q1 2022 and 1.34 mbpd in Q4 2022. In Q1 2023, the sector’s real growth rate was -4.21% year-on-year. However, compared to Q1 2022, the sector showed an improvement of 21.83% compared to the Q1 2022 growth rate of -26.04%. In comparison to Q4 2022, which had a growth rate of -13.38%, the sector’s growth rate was 9.18%. The oil sector contributed 6.21% to real GDP in Q1 2023. A decrease from the figure recorded in Q1 2022 and an improvement from Q4 2022, where it contributed 6.63% and 4.34% respectively.
The non-oil sector experienced a real growth rate of 2.77% during the first quarter of 2023. This growth rate was 3.30% lower than the rate observed in Q1 2022, and it was also 1.67% lower than the growth rate in Q4 2022. In the first quarter of 2023, the non-oil sector accounted for 93.79% of the nation’s GDP, which was higher than the share recorded in the first quarter of 2022 (93.37%), but lower than the fourth quarter of 2022 (95.66%).
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During the quarter, positive GDP growth was mainly driven by the following sectors: Information and Communication (Telecommunication), Financial and Insurance (Financial Institutions), Trade, Manufacturing (Food, Beverage & Tobacco), Construction, and Transportation & Storage (Road Transport).
