Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased to 2.28 per cent in real terms in the third quarter of this year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has said.
The NBS, in its latest quarterly GDP report, said the real GDP growth rate in Q3 indicated an increase of 0.17 percentage points compared to the 2.12 growth rate recorded in Q2 2019.
“The growth rate in Q3 2019 represents the second-highest quarterly rate recorded since 2016,” it said.
The country recorded an average daily oil production of 2.04 million barrels per day in Q3, its highest in more than three years, according to the report.
“This output was 0.1mbpd higher than the daily average production of 1.94mbpd recorded in the same quarter of 2018, and 0.02mbpd higher than the revised oil production levels in Q2 2019 of 2.02mbpd,” the NBS added.
According to the NBS, aggregate GDP stood at N37.81tn in nominal terms in Q3, compared to the N33.37tn recorded in the third quarter of 2018, representing a year-on-year nominal growth rate of 13.30 per cent.
“The growth rate is, however, lower relative to rates recorded in the third quarter of 2018 by 0.28 percentage points and the rates recorded in the preceding quarter by 0.71 percentage points.”
The statistics bureau reported in September that GDP growth rate fell to 1.94 per cent in Q2 from 2.10 per cent in Q1.
A global credit rating agency, Fitch Ratings, said in June that the Nigerian economy would continue to experience a sluggish recovery, predicting that the GDP growth would average 2.2 per cent in 2019-2020, below its previous 10-year average of 4.2 per cent and the current ‘B’ median of 3.4 per cent.
It said high unemployment and inflation would constrain private consumption while investment was held back by tight credit supply, a weak business climate and regulatory uncertainty in the oil sector.
Another rating agency, Moody’s Investors Service, also said in June that Nigeria was trapped in a low growth path for the time being.
The Vice President-Senior Credit Officer, Sovereign, Aurelien Mali, said government revenue weakness remained a key credit challenge, adding that the country’s balance sheet had deteriorated to a worrisome level.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government has concluded plans to inaugurate an N2billion privately-built paint industry in Abuja, by 2020, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Richard Adeninyi Adebayo, has said.
Adebayo said the fully-automated plant has adequate capacity for large volume production with added benefits of increasing local capacity, thereby reducing importation of finished products, strengthening the local market and the Naira as well as creating massive employment for the youths.
The plant will be operated by Berger Paints Plc a 100 per cent indigenous firm, which commenced operations in Nigeria in January 1959.
Adebayo gave the assurance when he received in audience the management of the company in his office.
“One of my mandates here, following my appointment by President Mohammadu Buhari, is to support private sector industrial growth. We are proud of what your management is doing, and we are ready to support you. I am not unaware of some of the challenges facing the paint industry in Nigeria, but we are working round the clock to address them.”
He further said that the government is already looking at industrialisation and agricultural revolution to expand the economy, create jobs, and take 10 million Nigerians out of poverty.
Earlier, the Chairman, Berger Paints, Abi Ayida, said the plant is in the final stage of factory acceptance testing for its full automation, which the contractors will handover in a few week’s time.
Ayida described the project, to be formally inaugurated by Adebayo in Q1 2020, as first of its kind in sub-Sahara Africa, and conforms to international standards.
“The Company is on top of a major revolution in the paint industry, as it commissions a fully-automated water-based paint factory. We are only calling for improved access to forex for raw materials, which accounts for about 80 per cent of the industry’s inputs.”
He also appealed to the government to consider the inclusion of paint raw materials among items on the priority list for forex access.