NIGERIA’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew to 2.54 per cent year-on-year in real terms in the third quarter (Q3) of 2023, higher than the 2.25 per cent recorded in the corresponding quarter in 2022, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has revealed.

The statistics office disclosed this in its ‘Nigerian Gross Domestic Product Report Q3 2023’ released on Friday, November 24.

The report shows that GDP grew slightly by 0.03 per cent in Q3, higher than the 2.51 per cent reported in the second quarter of 2023 growth.

According to NBS, the performance of the GDP in the review quarter was driven mainly by the services sector, which recorded a growth of 3.99 per cent and contributed 52.70 per cent to the aggregate GDP growth.

While the agriculture sector grew by 1.30 per cent, from the growth of 1.34 per cent recorded in Q3 2022, the industry sector improved to 0.46 per cent from a negative territory of -8.00 per cent recorded in Q3 2022.

In terms of share of the GDP, however, agriculture and the industry sectors contributed less to the aggregate GDP in Q3 compared to Q3 2022.

The report also revealed that in nominal terms, aggregate GDP grew by 16.08 per cent to N60.66 trillion in Q3 compared to N52.26 trillion in Q3 2022.

“For better clarity, the Nigerian economy has been classified broadly into the oil and non-oil sectors,” NBS stated.

Commenting on the Q3 GDP growth in an interview with Arise TV on Friday night, a development economist, Ken Ife, said the modest growth reflected President Bola Tinubu-led administration policy that started on May 29 when he declared that subsidy was gone.

He said that the new policy of the removal of subsidy, the low production of crude and revenue impact, and the policy of the convergence of the exchange rate and its challenges affected the Q3 GDP growth rate.

“In all cases, we didn’t have enough supply or guarantee of supply of dollars to temper the widening rates.

“But now we are seeing more hope. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel. There is a lot of money coming in from offshore and more intervention for the Central Bank,” Ife added.