Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew for the second consecutive quarters in the first quarter of 2021, after the negative growth rates recorded in the second and third quarters of 2020.
However, the growth in Q1 2021 was lower than that of Q1 2020. Nigeria recorded a GDP growth of 0.51% (year-on-year) in real terms in the first quarter of 2021.
This rate is lower than the 1.87% growth rate recorded in Q1 2020 but higher than 0.11% recorded in Q4 2020, indicative of a slow but continuous recovery according to GDP report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
Nevertheless, quarter on quarter, real GDP grew at -13.93% in Q1 2021 compared to Q4 2020, reflecting a generally slower pace of economic activities at the start of the year.
In the quarter under review, aggregate GDP stood at N40.014 trillion in nominal terms. This performance is higher when compared to the first quarter of 2020 which recorded aggregate GDP of N35.647 trillion, indicating a year on year nominal growth rate of 12.25%.
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The nominal GDP growth rate in Q1 2021 was higher relative to 12.01% growth recorded in the first quarter of 2020 as well as the 10.07% growth recorded in the preceding quarter.
Contributions to GDP in real terms
- Non-oil sector: 90.75%
- Oil sector: 9.25%
In another category, Agriculture contributed 22.35%, Industries contributed 23.75% while Services contributed 53.90% to the real GDP.
The Nigerian economy has been classified broadly into the oil and non-oil sectors.
The non-oil sector grew by 0.79% in real terms in Q1 2021, which was –0.75% points lower compared to the rate recorded in the same quarter of 2020 and -0.89% points lower than rates recorded in the fourth quarter of 2020.
In real terms, the Non-oil sector accounted for 90.75% of aggregate GDP in the first quarter of 2021, higher than its share in the first quarter of 2020 which was 90.50% but lower than 94.13% recorded in the fourth quarter of 2020.
In the first quarter of 2021, average daily oil production stood at 1.72 million barrels per day (mbpd), or 0.35mbpd lower than the average daily production of 2.07mbpd recorded in the same quarter of 2020 but higher than the production volume of 1.56mbpd recorded in the fourth quarter of 2020.
The oil sector recorded real GDP growth rate of –2.21% (year-on-year) in Q1 2021 indicating a decrease of –7.27% points relative to the growth rate recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2020 (5.06%).
the Oil sector accounted for 9.25% of aggregate real GDP in Q1 2021, slightly lower than 9.5% recorded in the corresponding period of 2020 but higher than in the preceding quarter, where it contributed 5.87%.
The Agricultural sector: Crop Production, Livestock, Forestry and Fishing grew by 15.14% year-on-year in nominal terms in Q1 2021, showing a decline of -7.33% points from the corresponding quarter of 2020 but an increase of 1.11% points when compared with the preceding quarter’s growth rate of 14.03%.
Agriculture contributed 21.42% to nominal GDP in the first quarter of 2021. This figure was higher than the rates recorded for the first quarter of 2020 but lower than the fourth quarter of 2020 which recorded 20.88% and 24.23% respectively.
Ifunanya Ikueze is an Engineer, Safety Professional, Writer, Investor, Entrepreneur and Educator.
