Nigeria’s economy grew by 3.98 percent in real terms in the third quarter of 2025, according to new data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), signalling steady expansion in Africa’s largest economy despite inflationary pressures and global uncertainty, Okay News reports.
In its latest GDP report, the statistics office said the new figures reflect an updated methodology following the rebasing of the country’s national accounts to a 2019 base year.
“Following the rebasing of the Gross Domestic Product using 2019 as the base year, previous quarterly GDP estimates were benchmarked to the rebased annual estimates to align the old series with the new rebased estimates,” the report reads.
The bureau explained that this exercise produced a refreshed quarterly series which now serves as the basis of comparison for 2025.
“This procedure provided a new quarterly GDP series, which is compared to the 2025 third quarter estimates. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 3.98% (year-on-year) in real terms in the third quarter of 2025.
This growth rate is higher than the 3.86% recorded in the third quarter of 2024.”
The latest numbers confirm that output in Q3 2025 was slightly stronger than the same period a year earlier, underscoring gradual recovery and resilience in key sectors of the Nigerian economy.
According to the NBS, agriculture grew by 3.79 percent in real terms, compared with 2.55 percent in the third quarter of 2024, reflecting improved performance in crop production and related activities.
The industry sector also strengthened, expanding by 3.77 percent, up from 2.78 percent in Q3 2024, driven by gains in manufacturing and extractive industries.
The services sector, which includes telecommunications, finance, trade, transport and other key activities, continued to anchor growth.
While services expanded by 4.15 percent in Q3 2025, slightly below the 4.97 percent recorded a year earlier, it remained the single largest contributor to national output.
“In terms of share of the GDP, the services sector contributed more to the aggregate GDP in the third quarter of 2025 at 53.02% compared to the corresponding quarter of 2024 at 52.93%,” the bureau said.
In nominal terms, the NBS reported that aggregate GDP at basic prices stood at N113.58 trillion in the third quarter of 2025, compared with N96.16 trillion in Q3 2024.
This represents a year-on-year nominal growth of 18.12 percent, reflecting both higher prices and increased economic activity.
