As Nigeria charts a path toward sustainable recovery and data-driven policy, the rebased figures provide a more accurate and current reflection of the economy’s structure and growth dynamics
Nigeria’s Economy Rebounds with 3.13% Growth in Q1 2025 After Major GDP Rebasing
Nigeria’s economy recorded a 3.13% year-on-year growth in real terms in the first quarter of 2025, marking a strong rebound from the 2.27% growth seen in the same period of 2024. This is according to the latest GDP report released Monday by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The improved performance, the NBS noted, was largely driven by the services and industrial sectors.
“Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 3.13 per cent (year-on-year) in real terms in the first quarter of 2025. This growth rate is higher than the 2.27 per cent recorded in the first quarter of 2024,” the report stated.
Adding depth to the report, the Statistician General of the Federation, Adeyemi Adeniran, announced the rebasing of Nigeria’s GDP to the year 2019. As a result, the country’s economic output for 2019 was revised to ₦205.09 trillion — representing a 41.1% increase from previous estimates.
“This compares to a 59.5% increase following the previous rebasing exercise in 2014,” Adeniran explained.
The revised GDP figures indicate steady nominal growth in subsequent years:
- 2020: ₦213.64 trillion
- 2021: ₦243.30 trillion
- 2022: ₦274.23 trillion
- 2023: ₦314.02 trillion
- 2024: ₦372.82 trillion
In real terms, GDP growth swung from a contraction of -6.96% in 2020 (due to pandemic shocks) to a modest 0.95% in 2021. Stronger growth followed in 2022 and 2023 at 4.32% and 3.04% respectively, with 2024 closing at a solid 3.38%.
The rebasing exercise, which covers 2019 to 2023, also reshuffled the rankings of Nigeria’s top-performing sectors.
“Ranking the top five economic activities using the 2019 base year, Crop Production came top with (17.58%), trade (17.42%), real estate (10.78%), telecommunications (6.78%), and crude petroleum and natural gas (5.85%),” Adeniran revealed.
Interestingly, real estate overtook the oil and gas sector, now ranked fifth — a shift attributed to improved coverage of the informal real estate market.
The services sector maintained its dominance, contributing 53.09% to GDP in 2019, followed by agriculture at 25.83% and industries at 21.08%.
Adeniran further highlighted the growing role of Nigeria’s informal economy, estimating its contribution to GDP at ₦86.85 trillion, or 42.5%, in 2019 — more than double the previous estimate of ₦39 trillion from 2015.
As Nigeria charts a path toward sustainable recovery and data-driven policy, the rebased figures provide a more accurate and current reflection of the economy’s structure and growth dynamics. Read More
