Nigeria’s GDP Grew by 3.89% in Q1 2026
Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 3.89% (year-on-year) in real terms in the first quarter of 2026,
higher than the 3.13% recorded in the first quarter of 2025.
The development is driven largely by the non-oil sector, according to the latest report from the National Bureau of Statistics(NBS).
This is an improvement from the 3.13% growth recorded in Q1 2025,
During the quarter under review, agriculture grew by 3.15%, an improvement from the 0.07% recorded in the corresponding quarter
of 2025.
The report noted that the growth of the industry sector stood at 3.50% from 3.42% recorded in the first quarter of 2025, while the services sector recorded a growth of 4.31% from 4.33% in the same quarter of 2025.
In terms of share of the GDP, the services sector contributed more to the aggregate GDP in the first
quarter of 2026 at 57.73% compared to the corresponding quarter of 2025 at 57.50%.
In the quarter under review, aggregate GDP at basic price stood at N110,786,347.01 million in nominal terms.
This performance is higher when compared to the first quarter of 2025, which
recorded an aggregate GDP of N94,051,733.20 million, indicating a year-on-year nominal growth of
17.79%. For better clarity, the Nigerian economy has been classified broadly into the oil and non-oil
sectors (Pages 5 & 6)
Recall that the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has been conducting Establishment Surveys to provide data for the estimation of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the country.
In 2008, NBS started to
improve the GDP series by conducting Quarterly Establishment Surveys (QES) for the four quarters of
each year to provide timely estimates for decisions and policymaking.
In 2018, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) conducted the Quarterly Establishment Surveys for the irst three quarters of 2018 (Q1-Q3/ 2018), while the fourth quarter survey for 2018 was conducted in
the first quarter of 2019.
This compilation procedure is carried out to date, publishing the Q4 GDP
report within the first quarter of the new accounting year. It is important to note that the Bureau maintains a publication date of 45 days after the quarter.
NBS noted that in the subsequent sections of the current report, emphasis will be given to the composition of GDP in the first
quarter of 2026, the corresponding quarter of 2025, and the immediate past quarter of 2025 (Q4).
