Nigeria's economy grew by 7.68 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, as against 7.40 percent in the third quarter, the National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday.
The non-oil sector contributed more than any other sectors to the growth of the economy in the period under review as it grew by 9.07 percent compared to 8.93 percent in the corresponding period in 2010, the bureau said. "This growth was largely driven by improved activities in the telecommunications, building and construction, hotel and restaurant and business services," the report said.
The oil sector output decreased as a result of the facilities shut down in the sector.
In a report yesterday, the bureau said that Nigeria pumped an average of 2.4 million barrels of oil per day in the last three months of the year, down from 2.6 million barrels per day in 2010 as a result of production outages.
The economy grew by 7.36 percent in the full year 2011, down from 7.98 percent in 2010, largely in line with expectations. The decline in growth reflects global economic sluggishness. Growth in Nigeria outperformed most developing economies.
Agriculture is the largest contribution to GDP, making up about 40 percent of it.
Telecoms surged in Nigeria in the past decade after private companies were allowed to take advantage of the huge mobile phone market potential in the continent's most populous country. The report said: "This sector continued to perform impressively and has remained one of the major drivers of growth in the Nigerian economy, with its contribution to total GDP increasing continuously. The telecommunication sector recorded a real GDP growth of 36.31 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011."
The oil sector witnessed unprecedented levels of disruption compared to recent times due to temporary shutdown of facilities such as at Bonga, a 200,000 barrel per day facility, which supplies close to 10 percent of Nigeria's total crude output.
Sabotage leaks also said to result in the Shell Development Company of Nigeria declaring a force majeure on its Forcados export programme for the fourth quarter of 2011 due to a sabotage leak on Trans Forcados Pipeline.
However, the sector benefited immensely from the high international crude oil market price and the exchange rate regime of naira against the dollar in spite of decline in daily average production in the quarter under review.
The oil sector contributed 13.54 percent in fourth quarter of 2011 as against 14.64 percent to real GDP in the fourth quarter 2010.
Nigeria is reliant on oil exports for more than 95 percent of its foreign exchange revenues but only 15 percent of GDP while Agriculture is the largest contribution to GDP, making up about 40 percent of it.
Agriculture contributed 5.74 percent to the GDP growth in the fourth quarter of 2011 as against 6.08 percent in the corresponding period 2010.
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