Deborah Akinyosoye
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), says Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rate in real terms grew by 3.98 per cent in the third quarter of 2025 on a year-on-year basis.
The NBS stated this in the Nigerian Gross Domestic Product Report Q3 2025 released in Abuja on Monday.
The report said the growth rate was higher than the 3.86 per cent recorded in the third quarter of 2024.
However, it was lower than the 4.23 per cent recorded in quarter two of 2025.
It said the Agriculture sector grew by 3.79 per cent in the third quarter of 2025, an increase from the 2.55 per cent recorded in the third quarter of 2024.
The report said the Industry sector witnessed a growth rate of 3.77 per cent, an improvement from the 2.78 per cent recorded in the third quarter of 2024.
It said the Services sector recorded a growth rate of 4.15 per cent, a decrease from the 4.97 per cent recorded in Q3 2024.
The NBS said in terms of share of the GDP, the services sector contributed more to the aggregate GDP in Q3 2025 at 53.02 per cent compared to the 52.93 per cent recorded in Q3 2024.
The report said in the third quarter of 2025, aggregate GDP at basic price stood at N113.59 trillion in nominal terms.
“This performance is higher when compared to the third quarter of 2024 which recorded aggregate GDP of N96.160 trillion , indicating a year-on-year nominal growth of 18.22 per cent,” the NBS said.
The report said the oil sector witnessed a growth rate of 5.84 per cent in Q3 2025 on a year-on-year basis, showing an increase of 0.18 per cent points compared to the 5.66 per cent recorded in Q3 2024.
“However, growth decreased in the oil sector by 14.62 per cent points when compared to the 20.46 per cent recorded in Q2 2025.”
It said the oil sector contributed 3.44 per cent to the total real GDP in Q3 2025, an increase from the 3.38 per cent recorded in Q3 2024 and a decrease from the 4.05 per cent it contributed in Q2 2025 .
The report said Q3 2025 recorded an average daily oil production of 1.64 million barrels per day (mbpd), higher than the daily average production of 1.47 mbpd recorded in Q3 2024 by 0.17 mbpd.
“However, the production volume for Q3 2025 was lower than Q2 2025, which recorded 1.68 mbpd by 0.04 mbpd.”
Recalls that in September 2025, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission(NUPRC) said crude oil production dropped to 1.58 mbpd.
According to NUPRC, the decline was primarily due to the three day industrial action embarked upon by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) , which led to the shutdown of several production and export facilities.
The cheduled maintenance at two major production facilities further contributed to the drop.
It said the non-oil sector contributed 96.56 per cent to the GDP in Q3 2025 in real terms.
“This shows a decrease from the contribution recorded in Q3 2024 at 96.62 per cent and an increase in Q2 2025 recorded at 95.95 per cent,” it said.
The report said the non-oil sector in Q3 2025 was driven mainly by agriculture(crop production); information and communication(telecommunication), real estate; finance and insurance(financial institutions); trade; construction and manufacturing, all accounting for positive GDP growth.
NAN reports that the NBS rebased the GDP with 2019 as the base year due to the relative stability of the domestic economy.
The NBS said previous quarterly GDP estimates were benchmarked to the rebased annual estimates to align the old series with the new rebased estimates.
The bureau said this procedure provided a new quarterly GDP series compared to the 2025 third quarter estimates.