Nigeria’s economy recorded a year-on-year growth of 3.13 percent in the first quarter of 2025, driven largely by the services and non-oil sectors, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced on Monday.
The latest figures, which follow a long-anticipated rebasing of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) with 2019 as the new base year, show an improvement from the 2.27 percent growth recorded in the same quarter of 2024.
According to the report, the services sector led the economic expansion with a 4.33 percent growth, contributing 57.50 percent to the total GDP during the period under review.
NBS said the rebased estimates involved benchmarking previous quarterly GDP data to the new annual figures, resulting in a revised quarterly GDP series. This rebasing aligns the country’s economic data with more recent structural developments.
In nominal terms, Nigeria’s aggregate GDP stood at N94.05 trillion in Q1 2025—an 18.3 percent increase from the N79.50 trillion recorded in the first quarter of 2024.
The report also highlighted a marginal increase in oil production, which averaged 1.62 million barrels per day (mbpd) in Q1 2025, compared to 1.57 mbpd in the corresponding quarter of 2024 and 1.54 mbpd in Q4 2024.
Despite this, the oil sector’s contribution to the real GDP declined to 3.97 percent, down from 4.02 percent in Q1 2024, though slightly up from 2.80 percent in the previous quarter.
The real growth of the oil sector stood at 1.87 percent year-on-year—lower than the 4.71 percent recorded in Q1 2024. Quarter-on-quarter, however, the oil sector saw a notable growth of 13.81 percent.
The non-oil sector maintained its stronghold on the economy, contributing 96.03 percent to the real GDP in Q1 2025. It recorded a real growth of 3.19 percent, up from 2.17 percent in the same period last year, though slightly lower than the 3.80 percent growth posted in Q4 2024.
According to NBS, growth in the non-oil sector was driven by key industries including telecommunications, crop production, real estate, finance and insurance, trade, construction, and food and beverage manufacturing.
“This robust performance reinforces the importance of diversifying Nigeria’s economy away from oil,” NBS stated.
The rebased GDP figures also promise more accurate tracking of economic performance and policymaking, with the bureau noting that previously overlooked sectors such as modular refineries and informal economic activities will now be captured more effectively in national statistics.
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