Growth in the agricultural sector cooled in the fourth quarter of 2024 compared to the same period of 2023, according to new data by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
According to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) released Tuesday, the agricultural sector saw a rise of 1.17 percent in Q4.
But it is 0.93 points lower than the 2.10 percent growth recorded in the review period of 2023 and slightly higher than the 1.14 percent recorded in the third quarter of 2024.
“The agricultural sector in the fourth quarter of 2024 grew by 1.76 percent (year-on-year) in real terms, a decrease of 0.35 percent points from the corresponding period of 2023, and an increase of 0.61 percent points from the preceding quarter which recorded a growth rate of 1.14 percent,” the NBS explained in its report.
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The report noted that the agric sector recorded an annual growth of 1.19 percent in the review period compared to 1.13 percent in 2023.
The agric sector is poised to get a leg up in 2025 from several intervention schemes by the federal government to tackle insecurity, including the deployment of over 1,000 agro rangers across 19 local governments in 2024, according to analysts polled by BusinessDay.
The NBS explained that agriculture contributed 25.59 percent to aggregate GDP in real terms in the review period, lower than the contribution in the fourth quarter of 2023 and lower than the third quarter of 2024 which stood at 26.11 percent and 28.65 percent, respectively.
Crop production remained the top contributor to the sector. This is evident as it accounted for 90.70 percent of the overall nominal value.
Overall, the industry sector, to which agriculture belongs, recorded a slow growth of 2 percent, a decline from 3.86 percent recorded in Q4 2023.
Also, year-on-year, Nigeria’s GDP grew by 3.84 percent in real terms in Q4 of 2024, higher than the 3.46 percent recorded in the corresponding period of 2023 – the highest in three years – on the back of Tinubu’s economic reforms.
“The performance of the GDP in the fourth quarter of 2024 was driven mainly by the Services sector, which recorded a growth of 5.37 percent and contributed 57.38 percent to the aggregate GDP,” the NBS noted.
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In real terms, the non-oil sector grew by 0.89 points to 3.96 percent from 3.07 percent in the same quarter of 2023.
According to the NBS, this growth was majorly driven by the Financial and Insurance (Financial Institutions); Information and Communication (Telecommunications); Agriculture (Crop production); Transportation and Storage (Road Transport); Trade; and Manufacturing.
