Nigeria's economy experienced a decline of -0.68% in the first quarter of 2020 as the country's GDP reduced by 1.87% when compared to the Fourth quarter of 2019.

In the recent GDP report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday, Nigeria's economic decline was attributed to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and deep fall in oil prices.

Year after year, the economy also dragged by -0.23% points when compared to the first quarter of 2019, while Quarter after Quarter, the real GDP growth was -14.27% compared to 5.59% recorded in the previous quarter.

The NBS said in the last quarter, Nigeria's aggregate GDP stood at N35,647,406.08 million in nominal terms.

This performance was higher when compared to the first quarter of 2019 which recorded N31,824,349.67 million, with a nominal growth rate of 12.01% year on year.

“Relative to the first quarter of 2019, the nominal growth rate was higher by 0.11% points but lower than the preceding quarter by –0.32% points.”

In the first quarter of 2020, Nigeria sustained the daily average oil production of 2.07 million barrels per day (MBPD), when compared to the 1.99mbpd recorded in the same quarter of 2019.

The report stated that the country’s oil sector recorded a real growth rate of 5.06% (year-on-year) in first quarter of 2020 indicating an increase of 6.51% points relative to the rate recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2019.

“Quarter-on-quarter, the oil sector recorded a growth rate of 11.30% in the first quarter 2020. The Oil sector contributed 9.50% to aggregate real GDP in the first quarter of 2020, up from figures recorded in the corresponding period of 2019 and the preceding quarter, as the share of the non-oil economy declined.”

However, the non-oil sector increased by 1.55% during the first quarter, but slower by –0.93% as the year went further.

The report showed that the non-oil sector was driven mainly by “Information and Communication (Telecommunications), Financial and Insurance (Financial Institutions), Agriculture (Crop Production), Mining and Quarrying (Crude Petroleum & Natural Gas), and Construction”.

It added that the non-oil sector contributed 90.50% to the nation’s GDP in the first quarter of 2020, less than its share in the first quarter of 2019 which was 90.78% and the fourth quarter of 2019 recorded as 92.68%.