Abuja: Nigeria's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 3.13 per cent on a year-on-year basis in real terms during the first quarter of 2025, as announced by Adeyemi Adeniran, the Statistician-General of the Federation, at a news briefing on the Rebased GDP Results released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
According to News Agency of Nigeria, this growth rate surpasses the 2.27 per cent recorded in the first quarter of 2024. The services sector was the primary driver of this growth, recording a 4.33 per cent increase and contributing 57.50 per cent to the aggregate GDP. The agriculture sector also showed improvement, with a growth of 0.07 per cent in Q1 2025, compared to a decline of -1.79 per cent in the same period of 2024. Meanwhile, the industry sector saw a growth rate of 3.42 per cent, up from 2.35 per cent in Q1 2024.
In terms of GDP share, the services and industry sectors contributed more to the aggregate GDP in Q1 2025 compared to the previous year. The aggregate GDP at basic price stood at N94,051,733.20 million in nominal terms, reflecting a year-on-year nominal growth of 18.30 per cent from Q1 2024, which recorded an aggregate GDP of N79,505,265.15 million.
The rebased GDP results from 2019 to 2024 provided a detailed breakdown of Nigeria's economy. In nominal terms, the economy was estimated at N205.09 trillion in 2019 and grew consistently each year, reaching N372.82 trillion in 2024. The rebased nominal GDP at basic prices showed an increase over the nominal GDP of the previous base year. The real GDP growth rate for 2020 was -6.96 per cent due to the impact of COVID-19, but positive growth resumed in 2021 and continued through 2024.
Ranking economic activities based on the 2019 base year, crop production led with 17.58 per cent, followed by trade at 17.42 per cent and real estate at 10.78 per cent. Telecommunications and crude petroleum and natural gas followed, with significant shifts observed in the rankings due to the rebasing.
The services sector emerged as the largest contributor to GDP, followed by agriculture and industry. Enhanced coverage of various economic activities, including the water transport sub-sector and the informal sector, contributed to these changes. The recent rebasing exercise, with 2019 as the new base year, included updated methodologies and best practices, providing a more comprehensive overview of Nigeria's economic landscape.