Services, agriculture, oil lift Nigeria’s GDP growth to 4.43%

NIGERIA’S real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 4.43 percent year-on-year in the second quarter (Q2) of 2026, supported by stronger performances in the services and agriculture sectors.

The latest growth figure, released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), represents an improvement of 0.20 percentage points over the 4.23 percent recorded in Q2 of 2025.

The services sector remained the economy’s biggest contributor to growth, expanding by 4.60 percent in Q2 2026, compared with 3.94 percent a year earlier.

Agriculture also recorded a significant improvement, with growth accelerating to 4.39 percent from 2.82 percent in Q2 2025 and 3.15 percent in the first quarter of 2026.

On a quarter-on-quarter basis, agricultural output rose by 17.80 percent, pushing the sector’s contribution to real GDP to 26.15 percent during the quarter.

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The industrial sector, however, recorded a sharp slowdown. Its growth rate fell to 3.96 percent in Q2 2026 from 7.46 percent in the corresponding period of 2025.

The oil sector provided further support to overall economic growth, expanding by 7.31 percent year-on-year. Average daily crude oil production increased to 1.72 million barrels per day, compared with 1.68 million barrels per day in Q2 2025.

Meanwhile, the non-oil economy grew by 4.31 percent during the quarter, with agriculture, information and communication, real estate, trade, financial and insurance services, manufacturing and construction identified among the major contributors.

In nominal terms, Nigeria’s GDP rose to N119.29 trillion in Q2 2026 from N100.73 trillion in the same quarter of 2025, representing an 18.43 percent increase year-on-year.

The latest figures indicate that Nigeria’s economic expansion continues to be driven largely by services and agriculture, while the sharp moderation in industrial growth remains a key area of concern.

Nigeria’s finance and insurance sector expanded by 9.29 percent in real terms in Q2 of 2026, marking a sharp slowdown from the 16.13 percent growth recorded in the same period last year.

The latest performance represents a 6.84 percentage-point decline from the sector’s growth rate in Q2 2025. However, it was slightly higher than the 8.55 percent recorded in the first quarter of 2026.

Trade was the largest individual contributor to real GDP during the quarter, accounting for 17.93 per cent, followed by crop production at 17.66 per cent and real estate at 12.71 per cent.

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Telecommunications and information services contributed 9.72 per cent, while livestock accounted for 6.04 per cent.

Crude petroleum and natural gas contributed 4.16 per cent, followed by construction at 3.68 per cent, financial institutions at 2.94 per cent, food, beverage and tobacco manufacturing at 2.82 per cent, and public administration at 2.66 per cent.