Olusola Bello
The Nigerian Bureaus of Statistics has said the nation’s gross Domestic Product, GDP, grew by 3.40 percent.
This means that the Nigerian economy grew by 3.98% in the fourth quarter of 2021 from a year earlier, slowing from growth of 4.03% in the third quarter, the country’s statistics office said.
It was the fifth consecutive quarter of economic growth in Africa’s most populous country following a recession-induced by the coronavirus pandemic.
Nigeria had been grappling with low growth even before the pandemic. The lockdowns then caused a sharp fall in global oil prices that created large financing gaps for the West African country, including dollar shortages and inflation.
Simon Harry, head of Nigeria’s statistics office, told reporters that air transport, coal mining and other minerals grew fastest while other mining, financial and insurance sectors also showed strong growth.
Full-year growth stood at 3.40% in 2021.
“Oil refining dragged down growth. The poor performance of oil was due to operation challenges and insecurity coming from pipeline vandalism,” said Harry.
Nigeria has an endemic problem with vandalism of its oil pipelines and illegal refining in the Niger Delta.
Despite a recovery in oil prices, Nigeria has struggled to meet its production targets.
Oil production stood at 1.50 million barrels per day in the final quarter of 2021, compared to 1.56 million recorded during the same period in the previous year, Harry said.
He said that the annual nominal value in 2021 was N173.53 trillion as against N152.32 trillion in 2020, showing a growth rate of 13.92 percent, while annual real value of 2021 stood at N72.39 trillion compared to N70.01 trillion in 2020.
The statistician-general said that the fastest-growing activities in fourth quarter of 2021 were Transportation and Storage; Mining and Quarrying; Financial and Insurance, Water Supply, Sewerage, Waste Management and Remediation Sectors.
“Thus, the fastest growing activities in real terms during the fourth quarter 2021 GDP estimates were Air Transport (63.05 percent), Coal Mining (62.91 percent), Metal Ores (46.96 percent), Quarrying and Other Minerals (42.92 percent), Rail Transport and Pipeline (37.74 percent) and Road Transport (30.39 percent).
“Others are Water Supply, Sewerage, Waste Management and Remediation (28.84 per cent) and Financial Institutions (25.19 percent)
