Nigeria Remains Fourth Largest Economy in Africa Despite Rebasing
Nigeria has retained its status as the fourth largest economy in Africa despite a rebasing exercise that expanded the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced that the economy expanded to N372.8 trillion ($243 billion) in 2024, down from N314.02 trillion in the prior year as more sectors in the informal economy were considered in its calculations.
The statistics bureau adopted 2019 as its base year away from 2010 that’s previously reported.
The rebasing exercise covers the period from 2019 to 2023 and reflects changes in the economy’s structure, sectoral contributions, and data sources.
Despite the overhaul, Nigeria fails to reclaim its erstwhile status as the largest economy in Africa.
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), South Africa remains the continent’s biggest economy with a GDP of $410.34 billion for a country with little over a quarter of Nigeria’s population.
Following the Southern African nation is Egypt with a GDP of $347 billion while Algeria maintains its third position having $268.9 billion as the size of its economy.
Although Nigeria’s economy grew 30 percent above the projected $188 billion estimate by the IMF this year, the rebasing was poised to place the economy as the biggest in Africa.
Nigeria records 3.13% annual GDP growth on services sector
Nigeria’s economy grew 3.13 percent in the first quarter of 2025 buoyed by the services sector which contributed 57.50 percent to the aggregate GDP, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The growth represents 0.86 percentage points from 2.27 percent recorded in the first quarter of 2024, even as the economy shrank by 0.63 percentage points percent on a quarterly basis.
According to the NBS, the GDP estimates were benchmarked to the rebased annual estimates to align the old series to the new rebased estimates. It adopted 2019 as the new base year in its calculations.
A sectoral analysis of the report showed that the services sector saw the highest growth followed by industry and agriculture which grew by 3.42 percent and 0.07 percent respectively.
“In terms of share of the GDP, the services and industry sectors contributed more to the aggregate GDP in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the corresponding quarter of 2024,” the NBS said.
According to the report, aggregate GDP at basic price stood at N94 trillion in nominal terms. This performance is higher when compared to the first quarter of 2024, which recorded N79 trillion, indicating a year-on-year nominal growth of 18.30 percent.
