Nigeria’s economic growth rate eased in the first quarter of 2026 to 3.89 per cent year-on-year, as a slowdown in the oil sector offset gains recorded in the non-oil sector.
The economy, measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP), slowed in the first three months of this year from the 4.07 per cent recorded in the previous quarter (Q4 2025), according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday. However, it was higher than the 3.13 per cent recorded in the first quarter of 2025.
In the first quarter of 2026, Nigeria recorded an average daily oil production of 1.55 million barrels per day, lower than 1.62 million barrels per day in the same quarter of 2025 and lower than the 1.58 million barrels per day in the fourth quarter of 2025.
The real growth of the oil sector was 2.57 (year-on-year) in Q1 2026, indicating an increase of 0.70 per cent compared with the 1.87 per cent in the corresponding quarter of 2025.
However, growth decreased by 4.22 per cent compared to 6.79 per cent in Q4 2025, and on a quarter-on-quarter basis, the oil sector recorded a growth rate of 9.31 per cent.
For the non-oil sector, it contributed 96.08 per cent to the nation’s GDP between January and March 2026, versus 96.03 per cent in the same period of last year and lower than 97.13 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year.
During the quarter under review, agriculture grew by 3.15 per cent. The growth of the industry sector stood at 3.50 per cent versus 3.42 per cent in the first quarter of last year, while the services sector recorded a growth of 4.31 per cent, in contrast to 4.33 per cent in the same quarter of 2025.
In terms of share of the GDP, the services sector contributed 57.73 per cent compared to 57.50 per cent in the first quarter of 2025.
In the quarter under review, aggregate GDP at basic price stood at N110.79 trillion in nominal terms, higher than N94.1 trillion in the first quarter of 2025 by 17.79 per cent.
SEE Full Details ➜