The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reports that Nigeria recorded a growth in its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 1.95 percent in the first quarter of 2018.
It added that the figure showed a stronger growth when compared with the -0.91 percent in the first quarter of 2017, indicating an increase of 2.87 percent points.
In the Q1 2018 GDP report released on Monday in Abuja, NBS stated that the aggregate GDP stood at N28,464,322.01 million in the first quarter of 2018. This performance is higher when compared to the first quarter of 2017 which recorded a nominal GDP aggregate of N26,028,356.03 million thus, presenting a positive year-on-year nominal growth rate of 9.36 percent.
“This rate of growth is however relative to growth recorded in Q1 2017 by -7.70 percent points at 7.06 percent but higher than the processing quarter by 2.14 percent points at 7.22 percent.”
The Bureau also reported that in the period under review, the nation recorded an average daily oil production of 2.0 million barrels per day (mbpd) higher than the daily average production recorded in the fourth quarter of 2017 by 0.05 mbpd and the real growth of the oil sector was 14.77 percent year-on-year in Q1 2018.
“This represents an increase of 30.37 points relative to rate recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2017. Quarter-on-Quarter, the oil sector grew by 13.24 percent in Q1 2018. The oil sector contributed 9.61 percent to total real GDP in Q1 2018, up from 8.53 percent and 7.35 percent recorded in Q1 2017 and Q4 2017 respectively.
NBS also stated that the mining and quarrying sector grew nominally by 84.02 percent year-on-year. It added that crude petroleum and natural gas is the major contributor to this increase with a growth rate of 84.27 percent.
“This growth is attributable to the relatively higher and more stable oil production in the nation as well as the higher crude oil price which is currently over $70 dollars per barrel. Quarrying and other minerals and metal ore recorded growth rate of 50.41 percent and 49.87 percent respectively.
“The mining and quarrying contributed 13.92 percent to overall GDP in the first quarter of 2018, higher than the 8.27 percent contribution recorded in the first quarter of 2017 and the 8.50 percent recorded in Q4 2017.
The statistics office stated that the agriculture sector grew by 5.80 percent year-on-year in nominal terms, showing a decline of 4.01 percent points and 4.33 percent points from Q1 2017 and Q4 2017, respectively.
“Crop is expectedly the major driver of the sector. This is evident as it accounts for 85.28 percent of overall nominal growth of the sector. In the first quarter of 2018, agriculture contributed 17.42 percent to nominal GDP. This figure is lower than the rate recorded for the first quarter of 2017 and the fourth quarter of 2017 at 18.00 percent and 21.93 percent respectively.
“The agricultural sector in the first quarter of 2018, grew by 3.00 percent year-on-year, in real terms a decrease of 0.38 percent points from the corresponding period of 2017 also a decrease by 1.23 percent points from the preceding quarter.
“The sector contributed 21.65 percent to overall GDP in real terms higher than the contributions in the first quarter of 2017 and lower than the fourth quarter of 2017 which stood at 21.43 percent and 26.13 percent respectively,” NBS stated.
