Business
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A National Bureau of Statistics report reveals that the manufacturing sector has contributed to one third of the total growth of the economy in the first quarter of this year despite the problem of unstable power supply in the country
| By Anayo Ezugwu | Aug. 11, 2014 @ 01:00 GMT
DESPITE unstable power supply in Nigeria, the manufacturing sector has recorded success in the first quarter of 2014. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, the sector accounted for one third of the total growth of the economy. The NBS stated that the Gross Domestic Product, GDP, for the first quarter of 2014, grew by 6.21 percent.
A report released by the bureau has shown that the 6.21 percent GDP growth was higher than the 4.55 percent recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2013, but lower than the 6.77 percent recorded in the fourth quarter of last year. According to the NBS, Nigeria’s nominal GDP (at basic prices) for the first quarter of this year was estimated at N20.169 trillion or N15.43 trillion in real terms, adding that in the corresponding quarter of 2013, it was estimated at N18.29 trillion or N14.53 trillion in real terms.
The report stated that while the oil sector recorded a negative real growth rate of 6.60 percent in the first quarter, indicating a better performance compared to the negative growth of 11.40 percent recorded in the corresponding period of 2013 and the negative growth of 9.36 percent recorded in the fourth quarter of 2013. The non-oil sector real growth was 8.21 percent in the opening quarter of 2014.
The 8.21 percent growth recorded in the non-oil sector in the first quarter represents an increase of 0.76 percentage point from the 7.44 percent recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2013. The NBS stated that relative to the fourth quarter of 2013, the non-oil growth was marginally lower by 0.57 percentage point in the first three months of this year.
On sector by sector contribution, the report said the services sector accounted for the largest share of real GDP in the first quarter of 2014, amounting to N8.181 trillion or 52.99 percent. The industrial sector, it stated, ranked second with a contribution of N4.22 trillion or 27.36 percent, while agriculture constituted the smallest sector in the first quarter, representing N3.03 trillion or 19.65 percent of the GDP.
The report also stated that activities in trade, telecommunications, real estate and crop production were the major contributors to the non-oil sector. For instance, it stated that in real terms, the telecommunications sector contributed N1.27 trillion or 8.27 percent to the total GDP in the first quarter of 2014. This is marginally lower than the contribution in the first quarter of 2013 by 0.14 percentage point.
On real estate, the report said the sector “represented 6.82 percent of the real GDP in the opening quarter of 2014, exhibiting a notable 1.55 percentage point decline from the 8.37 percent that it represented in the preceding quarter, only a marginal 0.20 percentage point decline from that of the corresponding quarter of 2013.”
For crop production, it explained that the sector was the second highest contributor to the real GDP in the first quarter of this year, with N2.64 trillion or 17.12 percent. “Trade was the largest contributor to the real GDP in the first quarter of 2014. It contributed N2.67 trillion or 17.35 percent of the real GDP in the first quarter of 2014, marginally higher than the 17.34 percent contribution to the GDP recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2013. The sector saw a strong growth of 6.28 percent in the opening quarter of 2014, marginally higher than the record for the corresponding quarter of 2013. This was as a result of higher agricultural output, a key input for traders.”
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