Nigeria recorded a slight increase in its oil output for the first quarter of 2020, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday.
According to the NBS, gains made in petroleum production led to an average output of N2.07m.
This, according to the agency, was better than the 1.99million barrels per day of oil produced in Q4 of 2019 and 2.01million BPD produced in Q3.
However, real Gross Domestic Product in the industry reduced from 6.36 per cent, while the growth rate for this quarter was 5.06 per cent.
The value of the oil industry to Nigeria’s growth was 9.50 per cent during this term.
Generally, quarterly growth appreciated by its lowest margin in six quarters, growing by 1.87 per cent year-on-year.
This according to the NBS is a slowdown of 0.23 per cent.
“This performance was recorded against the backdrop of significant global disruptions resulting from the COVID-19 public health crisis, a sharp fall in oil prices and restricted international trade,” the NBS said.
While this quarter was poorer when compared to Q4 2019, the Nigerian economy appears to have fared better than in the first quarter of 2019.
According to the NBS, “In the quarter under review, aggregate GDP stood at N35,647,406.08m in nominal terms.
“This performance was higher when compared to the first quarter of 2019 which recorded N31,824,349.67m 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.”
The pace of growth in the non-oil sector also faltered, as this aspect of the economy grew by 1.55 per cent – 0.93 per cent less than the preceding three months. Nigeria’s non-oil economic arm however fared worse in the first quarter of 2020, when compared to the first and last three months of 2019.
It added, “The non-oil sector grew by 1.55% in real terms during the reference quarter (Q1 2020). This was slower by -0.93% points compared to the rate recorded during the same quarter of 2019, and -0.72% points slower than the fourth quarter of 2019.”
The NBS also noted that the Non-oil sector dropped in percentage contribution to GDP as well. In this quarter, the contribution of the industries outside oil and gas was 90.50 per cent.
This is less than the 92.68 per cent value add in Q4 2019 and 90.78 per cent in Q1 2019.
Experts expect the economy to shrink by 8.9 per cent by the time the year is over.
