Nigeria’s economy has economy has continued its growth amidst ongoing structural reforms embarked upon by the Tinubu administration. According to the report published by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday, Nigeria’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 3.46 percent in the third quarter (Q3) of 2024.
The NBS, in the GDP report noted that the growth rate is higher than the 3.19 percent recorded in Q2 2024. It also added that the Q3 2024 growth rate is higher than the 2.54 percent recorded in the third quarter of 2023.
According to NBS, in the third quarter of 2024, the service sector witnessed a growth rate of 5.19 percent and contributed 53.58 percent to the aggregate GDP. The agriculture sector grew by 1.14%, down from the 1.30% growth it recorded in the third quarter of 2023.
“The growth of the industry sector was 2.18%, an improvement from 0.46% recorded in the third quarter of 2023. In terms of share of the GDP, the services sector contributed more to the aggregate GDP in the third quarter of 2024 compared to the corresponding quarter of 2023”, the NBS said in the report.
Average daily oil production rose to 1.47 million barrels in Q3 2024
Nigeria’s oil output witnessed a marginal increase in the third quarter. According to the NBS report, Nigeria recorded an average daily crude oil production of 1.47 million barrels in the third quarter of the year. This is just 0.07 million barrels per day higher than Q2 2024 oil production volume of 1.41mbpd.
The NBS revealed that the real growth of the oil sector was 5.17% (year-on-year) in Q3 2024, indicating an increase of 6.02 percentage points relative to the negative growth of 0.85% recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2023.
Oil vs non-oil sector
Overall, the oil sector contributed 5.57% to the total real GDP in Q3 2024, up from the 5.48% recorded in the corresponding period of 2023. This means that the non-oil sector contributed 94.4% to Q3 2024 GDP growth. The non-oil sector grew by 3.37 percent in real terms in Q3 2024, which is higher than the 2.75 percent recorded in the same quarter of 2023.
Meanwhile, the non-oil sector, which includes information and communication (telecommunication) topped the contribution, trade, agriculture (crop production), financial and insurance (financial institutions), manufacturing (food, beverage and tobacco), real estate and construction, and accounting contributed positively to the country’s GDP rate growth.
Unemployment rate decreases in Q2 2024
The NBS in another report it also released on Monday revealed that the unemployment rate in Nigeria decreased to 4.3% in Q2 2024 from the 5.3% recorded in Q1 2024.
In the NBS definition book, the unemployment rate is the share of the labour force (the combination of unemployed and employed people) who are not employed but actively searching and are available for work.