Top Contributed Sector of the Nigerian economy in the first quarter of 2024

By: Amadi Vincent Uzoma

Nigeria’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 2.98% year-on-year in the first quarter (Q1) of 2024. The number has gone up by 0.67 percentage points from the 2.31% growth rate recorded in the first quarter of 2023.
However, quarter-on-quarter, the economy slowed from the 3.46% growth recorded in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics ( BES) announced Friday. During the quarter, the service sector contributed 58.04% to the country’s GDP, growing at 4.32% during the quarter.

Additionally, the top five contributing activities were agricultural production, trade, telecommunications, crude oil and natural gas, and financial services. They contribute 62.25% to the country’s GDP.
Based on the NBS Q1 2024 GDP Report, these are the five largest sectors of the Nigerian economy.

Finance and insurance – 6.81%
This sector includes financial and insurance institutions. In Q1 2024, financial institutions accounted for 93.19% of the industry, while insurance accounted for 6.81%.
During the quarter, the total industry contribution reached 6.81%, up 1.44 percentage points from the 5.31% recorded in 1Q23. This is also 1.86 percentage points higher than the 4.95% recorded in the fourth quarter of 2023. This is also one of the fastest-growing sectors of the economy, with a growth rate of 31.24% Year-on-Year in Q1 2024. This represents a percentage of 9.87%. -point growth compared to the 21.37% growth rate announced in Q1 2023.

Manufacturing – 9.98%
In Q1 2024, manufacturing contributed 9.98% to real GDP economy, down from the industry contribution of 10.13 % in the first quarter of 2023, but up 1.90 percentage points. up from the industry’s 8.23% contribution in the previous quarter (Q4 2023). The sector grew 1.49% in the quarter, down 0.12 percentage points from the 1.61% growth rate in the first quarter of 2023.

Trade – 15.7%
Trade is the third largest contributor to the country’s GDP in the first quarter of 2024 with 15.
70%, slightly lower than the 15.97% recorded last year but high than the 15.50% recorded in the fourth quarter of 2023. During the quarter, the industry grew by 1.23%, 0.08 percentage points lower than the 1.31% growth rate recorded in Q1 2023 and is 0.17 points lower than the 1.31% growth rate recorded in Q1 2023, a percentage lower than the previous quarter’s growth rate of 1.40% (Q3 2024).

Information and Communications Industry – 17.89 –
According to NBS, the information and communication sector includes telecommunications and information services, publishing, cinema, recording and music production, as well as broadcasting television bars. In the first quarter of 2024, this sector contributed 17.89% to the national GDP, becoming the second largest contributor to the national economy. This translates to an increase of 0.42 percentage points from the industry’s contribution of 17.47% in Q1 2023 and an increase of 1.23 percentage points compared to the industry’s contribution of 16.66% in Q4 2023.

Agriculture – 21.07%
The agricultural sector includes four sub-activities: farming, animal husbandry, forestry, and fishing. This sector contributes 21.07% to GDP, of which crop production alone accounts for 19.24% of this figure. This represents a decrease from the first quarter of 2023 contribution of 21.66% and the fourth quarter of 2023 of 26.11%. In the first quarter of 2024, the agricultural sector grew by 0.18% over the same period last year, up 1.08 percentage points compared to the first quarter of 2023 but decreased by 1.92 percentage points compared to an increase of 2.10 % of the previous quarter.
Although not on this list, the oil and gas industry contributed 6.38% to GDP in the first quarter of 2024. Oil production increased during the quarter at an average of 1.57 million barrels/day compared to 1.55 million bpd last quarter, contributed to industry growth of 5.70% during the quarter. The real estate sector also contributed 5.20% to GDP in Q1 2024, up 0.84% during the quarter.
Other significant contributions to the sector included construction, which contributed 4.01% to GDP in the quarter. The construction industry in Q1 2024 decreased by 0.29% year-on-year, in contrast to the 37.7% growth the industry recorded in Q1 2023.