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The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has reported today that Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 2.28 per cent year-on-year in the third quarter of 2019. The latest GDP figure is 0.17 percentage point higher than the 2.12 per cent recorded in Q2 2019.

Relative to Q3 of 2018, which recorded a growth rate of 1.81 per cent, Q3 2019 represents an increase of 0.47 percentage point, according to the national statistics agency. The growth rate in Q3 2019 represents the second highest quarterly rate recorded since 2016.

The latest GDP figures show the oil sector accounted for 9.77 per cent of aggregate real GDP in Q3 2019, slightly higher than the 9.38 per cent the sector contributed in a corresponding quarter of 2018. The real GDP growth of the oil sector stood at 6.49 per cent in Q3 2019. This is lower that the 7.17 per cent real GDP growth recorded in the previous quater.  

Average daily oil production in Q3 2019 stood at 2.04 million barrels per day (mbpd). The NBS said this oil output figure is the highest recorded in more than three years.

The statistical agency reported that the non-oil sector grew by 1.85 per cent in real terms in Q3 2019, compared to 2.32 recorded in Q3 2018. Meanwhile, the non-oil sector contributed 90.23 per cent of the total GDP in the quarter under review, compared to 90.62 per cent in a similar quater of last year.

NBS said the Q3 GDP growth was driven mainly by the information and communication sector, which grew at 9.88 per cent, 0.23 percentage point higher than a similar quarter in 2018. Other drivers were agriculture (which grew by 2.28 per cent), mining and quarrying (6.19 per cent), transportation and storage (18.24 per cent), and manufacturing (1.10 per cent). The services sector grew by 1.87 per cent in Q3 2019, up from 2.64 per cent recorded in Q3 2018.

In the quarter under review, aggregate GDP stood at N37.8 trillion in nominal terms, up from the aggregate of N33.4 trillion recorded in the third quarter of 2018, representing a nominal growth rate of 13.30 per cent.

Following the 2016 recession when the GDP grew at -1.58 per cent, the country's GDP has been growing below the population growth rate in the last two years. The GDP grew at 0.82 per cent in 2017 and 1.91 per cent last year. Year-to-date, Nigeria's GDP has grown by 2.17 per cent. In April, the World Bank had forecast a modest 2.1 per cent GDP growth for Nigeria in 2019. Nigeria's population growth rate is estimated at 2.6 per cent.