Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in real terms grew by 3.84 per cent in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2024 on a year-on-year basis, which is 0.38 per cent points higher than the rate recorded in Q4 2023 which was 3.46 per cent.
The rreport which was released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Tuesday, shows that the year 2024 ended with an overall annual GDP growth rate of 3.40 per cent, this is higher than the projections by agencies like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which had earlier projected that the country’s GDP will grow by 3.2 per cent in 2024.
The NBS reports that the services sector remains as the major driver of the economy growing by 5.37 per cent and contributing 57.38 per cent to the aggregate GDP.
On a quarter-on-quarter basis, the real GDP grew by 10.99 per cent in Q4 2024, reflecting a higher production level than in Q3 2024.
The estimated economic activity in real terms for Q4 2024 stood at ₦22,610,393.45 million, which is higher than the rates recorded in Q3 2024 and Q4 2023 which stood at ₦20,115,766.93 million and ₦21,773,263.25 million respectively.
In nominal terms, aggregate GDP stood at ₦78,374,120.95 million in Q4 of 2024, indicating a year-on-year nominal growth rate of 18.91 per cent.
This is higher than the value of ₦65,908,258.59 million in Q4 2023 and ₦71,131,091.07 million in the preceding quarter.
The NBS reports that the economic performance of the non-oil sector in Q4 2024 is attributed to the growth recorded in some economic activities, including Rail Transport and Pipelines, Metal Ores, Financial Institutions, Road Transport, Quarrying and Other Minerals, and Insurance.
Analysis of the report shows that the major contributing economic activities in real terms in the quarter under review are Crop Production 23.42 per cent, Trade 15.11 per cent, Telecommunication 14.40 per cent, Real Estate 5.88 per cent, Financial Institutions 5.76 per cent and Crude petroleum 4.60 per cent.
The Agricultural Sector grew by 1.76 per cent, the Industry grew by 2.00 per cent which shows a decline compared to the rate recorded in Q4 2023 at 2.10 per cent and 3.86 per cent.
The report shows that Agriculture contributed 25.59 per cent, Industry 17.03 per cent, and Services 57.38 per cent. Agriculture and industry’s contribution was less than their contributions in Q4 of 2023 by 0.53 per cent and 0.31 basis points. The Services sector had the highest contribution to the GDP in Q4 2024, surpassing their contribution in the corresponding quarter of 2023 by 0.83 per cent basis points.
The annual contributions of the economic sector show that Agriculture contributed 24.64 per cent in 2024 which is lower compared to its contributions which stood at 25.18 per cent in 2023. Similarly, the industry sector’s annual contribution was 18.47 per cent which is also lower than the figure recorded for 2023 which was 18.65 per cent.
However, the services sector contributions for 2024 were 56.89 per cent which exceeded the 56.18 per cent recorded for 2023.
Further disaggregation of the economic activities into oil and non-oil sectors. The oil GDP grew by 1.48 per cent in Q4 2024, which shows a decline compared to 12.11 per cent recorded in Q4 2023, and the previous quarter of Q3 2024 which stood at 5.17 per cent.
The annual oil GDP for 2024 grew by 5.54 per cent, which is 7.75 per cent higher than the annual GDP recorded for 2023, -2.22 per cent. while the annual contribution of oil stood at 5.51 per cent in 2024 higher than its contribution in Q4 2023 which was 5.40 per cent.
The report also shows that the fourth quarter of 2024 recorded an average daily oil production of 1.54 million barrels per day (mbpd), lower than the daily average production of 1.56 mbpd recorded in the same quarter of 2023 by 0.03 mbpd.
On the contrary, the fourth quarter of 2024 production volume was higher than the third quarter of 2024 (1.47 mbpd) by 0.06 mbpd.