Is Nigeria’s Q2 2021 GDP Growth Worth Celebrating?

Last week, the National Bureau of statistics (NBS) released the GDP report for the second quarter of 2021.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the total market value of all the finished goods and services produced within a country during a specific period.

Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 5.01% year-on-year compared to the -6.10% decline recorded in the same period last year.

However, this growth is largely affected by the return of business and economic activities that was restricted last year due to COVID-19.

The trade, road transport, electricity, crop production and real estate sectors contributed the most to the Q2 2021 GDP, unlike the oil and gas and financial institutions sector that had a decline compared to last year.

This 5% growth rate this Q2 2021 has been the strongest growth since the fourth quarter of 2014.

It is better to compare this 5% growth rate to the pre-pandemic period to see the actual performance of the growth, because the pandemic brought about restrictions to businesses and economic activities.

Real GDP Q2 2021 vs Real GDP Q2 2019 gives a negative growth of -1.4%, which shows that Nigeria really needs to do more.

Are you working in one of the sectors that made the most contributions during the last quarter?

If yes, in which of the sectors do you work — trade, real estate, telecommunications, electricity?

How was business for you this last quarter?