Nigeria’s agricultural sector grew by 1.17% in the fourth quarter of 2024, according to new data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The latest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) report, released on Tuesday, shows that agriculture recorded a slight increase from the 1.14% growth in the third quarter. However, on a year-on-year basis, the sector’s performance declined compared to the 2.10% growth recorded in Q4 2023.
“The agricultural sector in the fourth quarter of 2024 grew by 1.76% (year-on-year) in real terms, a decrease of 0.35 percentage points from the corresponding period of 2023, but an increase of 0.61 percentage points from the preceding quarter,” the NBS stated in its report.
The sector contributed 25.59% to Nigeria’s aggregate GDP in Q4 2024, down from 26.11% in the same period of 2023 and 28.65% in Q3 2024. Crop production remained the dominant force, accounting for 90.70% of the sector’s overall nominal value.
Despite security concerns affecting farming communities, experts attribute the sector’s slight improvement to government intervention programs, including the deployment of over 1,000 agro rangers across 19 local governments in 2024 to protect farmers and boost productivity. The report also noted that agriculture recorded an annual growth rate of 1.19% in 2024, up from 1.13% in 2023.
Nigeria’s overall GDP grew by 3.84% year-on-year in real terms in Q4 2024, surpassing the 3.46% recorded in the same period of 2023. The industry sector, which includes agriculture, recorded a slower growth of 2%, down from 3.86% in Q4 2023.
According to the NBS, the GDP growth was largely driven by the services sector, which expanded by 5.37% and contributed 57.38% to total economic output. While agriculture remains a crucial part of the economy, its declining contribution to GDP highlights the increasing role of other sectors in Nigeria’s economic growth.
