Business
Sustained growth Nigeria’s non-oil sector hinges on friendly business environment, FX liquidity- PanAfrican Capital
To maintained the growth achieved in the non-oil sector of the Nigerian economy in 2018, the government must sustain the ease of doing business reforms, and ensure the availability of foreign exchange, said analysts at PanAfrican Capital (PAC) Research.
The non-oil sector recorded real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate of 2.70%, this translates to growth rate of 0.38% QoQ compared with the 2.32% in the third quarter of the year.
Also, the sector recorded real growth rate of 2.00% for the full year 2018, this is an improved performance relative to the 0.47% recorded in the previous year a performance was driven majorly by the performance of some economic activities in the non-oil industries sector and in the agriculture sector.
An analysis of the drivers of growth in the non-oil sector shows that agriculture sector recorded real GDP growth rate of 2.46%, this translates to a quarterly growth rate of 0.55% relative to 1.91% in the third quarter. In addition, the sector posted real growth rate of 2.12% for the full year 2018, lower than the 3.45% in 2017 and it contributed 26.15% to the output in the review quarter.
In the same vein, the industry sector recorded real growth rate of 0.95% in the review quarter, higher than the contraction of 0.11% in the preceding quarter but lower than the growth rate of 4.87% in the same quarter of the previous year. Also, the sector posted real growth rate of 1.94% for the year, lower than the 2.15% in 2017, the performance of the sector was driven by the manufacturing sector and construction sector which recorded real growth rate of 2.35% and 2.05% respectively.
More so, the services sector recorded growth rate of 2.90%, significantly higher than the 0.10% posted in the corresponding quarter of the previous year and slightly higher than the 2.64% recorded in the third quarter of 2018.
The sector recorded real growth rate of 1.83% for the full year 2018, higher than the contraction of 0.91% in 2017. The sector has been recording significant growth rate since the first quarter of 2018; this was being driven by the transport & storage sector and the information & communications sector which saw real growth rate of 9.48% and 13.20% respectively.
Data from the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed that Nigeria’s GDP improved by 2.38% year-on-year (YoY) in 4Q’18 and 1.93% FY’18 according to.
The improvement in the real GDP growth rate in the review period was driven by both the oil sector and the non-oil sector which recorded a real growth rate by of 2.7 % and -1.62 respectively.
The oil sector recorded real growth rate of -1.62% YoY in the 4Q’18. On the other hand, the sector recorded real growth rate of 1.29% QoQ, (i.e. relative to a contraction of 2.91% in the third quarter) and 1.14% YoY at the end of last year.