Nigeria’s gross domestic product or GDP grew by 3.98% year-on-year in the last quarter of 2021, according to a report released today by the National Bureau of Statistics or NBS.
The NBS said the GDP percentage increase showed “sustained positive growth” since the recession of 2020 that saw the country’s GDP shrink by -6.10% and -362% in the second and third quarters of 2020, respectively.
The 2020 recession was partly caused by the emergence of COVID-19 that necessitated a more than three-month lockdown of the economy.
The economy started recovering by the fourth quarter of 2020, which the NBS now says represented a “steady economic recovery” that culminated in the annual GDP growth of 3.40% in 2021.
“The Q4 2021 growth rate was higher than the 0.11% growth rate recorded in Q4 2020 by 3.87% points and lower than 4.03% recorded in Q3 2021 by 0.05% points,” the NBS said.
The Bureau also said that on a quarter-on-quarter basis, the real GDP grew at 9.63% in the fourth quarter of 2021 compared to the third quarter of the same year 2021, “reflecting a higher economic activity than the preceding quarter,” it said.
The Bureau said in the quarter under review, the aggregate GDP stood at N49,276,018 in nominal terms, up from N43,564,006 recorded in the fourth quarter of 2020.
The performance indicates “a year-on-year nominal growth rate of 13.11%,” it said, adding that “The nominal GDP growth rate in Q4 2021 was higher relative to 10.07% growth recorded in the fourth quarter of 2020 but lower compared to 15.41% growth recorded in the preceding quarter.”
It concluded that 2021 annual nominal growth stood at 13.92%. The NBS classified the economy into oil and non-oil sectors and based its conclusions on the analysis of the two industries.
The Bureau said the non-oil sector grew by 4.73% in real terms during the fourth quarter, higher by 3.05% points compared to the rate recorded same quarter of 2020 and 0.71% point lower than the third quarter of 2021.
It said the subsectors that drove the growth of the non-oil sector included agriculture (crop production), trade, information and communication, and financial and insurance.
In real terms, it said the non-oil sector contributed 94.81% to the nation’s GDP in the fourth quarter of 2021, up from 94.13% recorded in the fourth quarter of 2020 and higher than the 92.51% recorded in the third quarter of 2021.
For the entire year (2021), it said the annual contribution of the sector stood at 92.76%.
For the oil sector, it said the country recorded an average daily oil production of 1.50 million barrels per day (mbpd) in the fourth quarter of 2021, lower than the average daily production of 1.56mbpd recorded in the same quarter in 2020 and lower than the third quarter 2021 production volume of 1.57 mbpd.
Summarily, the actual oil sector growth was in the negative at –8.06% (year-on-year) in Q4 2021, but higher by 11.71% points relative to the rate recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2020, and 2.68% points higher compared to the –10.73% recorded in the third quarter of 2021.
On a quarter-on-quarter basis, it said the oil sector recorded a growth rate of -24.06% in Q4 2021, “down from figures recorded in the corresponding period of 2020 and down compared to the preceding quarter, where it contributed 5.87% and 7.49%, respectively.”
However, “the sector contributed 7.24% to real GDP in 2021,” it concluded.
The full report is available here.
