Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 3.13% year-on-year in real terms in the first quarter (Q1) of 2025, according to the latest report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday.
The figure marks an improvement from the 2.27% growth recorded in Q1 2024. The NBS attributed the positive performance primarily to increased activity in the services and industry sectors.
In its Q1 2025 GDP report, the Bureau stated: “Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 3.13% (year-on-year) in real terms in the first quarter of 2025. This growth rate is higher than the 2.27% recorded in the first quarter of 2024.”
The report also reflects the outcomes of Nigeria’s latest GDP rebasing exercise, which shifted the base year for economic measurement from 2010 to 2019. The rebasing revealed that GDP in 2019 stood at ₦205.09 trillion, a 41.1% increase over the previous estimate using the 2010 base year. For comparison, the 2014 rebasing showed a 59.5% upward revision at the time.
Statistician General of the Federation, Adeyemi Adeniran, noted that the rebasing covered the period from 2019 to 2023 and provided a more accurate representation of the structure and size of the economy.
Key highlights from the rebasing exercise include the 2024 GDP at current prices, which stood at ₦372.82 trillion ($243 billion).
Real GDP growth by year was as follows: 2020 saw a contraction of -6.96%, followed by 0.95% growth in 2021, 4.32% in 2022, 3.04% in 2023, and 3.38% in 2024.
The top five performing sectors based on the 2019 base year were crop production with 17.58%, trade with 17.42%, real estate with 10.78%, telecommunications with 6.78%, and crude petroleum and natural gas with 5.85%. Real estate activity climbed to the third position, overtaking crude oil and gas, largely due to improved coverage of informal real estate activities.
Sectorally, the services sector remained the largest contributor to GDP in 2019, accounting for 53.09%, up slightly from 52.60% under the previous estimate. Agriculture contributed 25.83%, while industries accounted for 21.08%.
The rebasing also revealed a significantly larger informal sector, which contributed ₦86.85 trillion (42.5%) to GDP in 2019 — more than double the ₦39.00 trillion estimated in 2015.
