Non-oil Sector Driving Nigerian Economy

The Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, has said the Nigerian economy is currently being driven by the non-oil sector.

Ahmed said this when she led officials of her ministry to hold a meeting with the leadership of the National Assembly over the 2022-2024 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper.

The minister said, “The growth of the Nigerian economy, we are pleased to say, is driven largely by the non-oil sector, which has risen to 0.79 percent, masking the deterioration in the oil sector.

“The sectoral growth in the non-oil sector was primarily driven by telecoms and agriculture sectors as well as other sectors of the Nigerian economy.

“Significant concerns still exist in the performance of trade, as well as the transport sector which is still in a very strong negative growth.”

Ahmed added that while the Nigerian economy experienced increasing revenue generation in 2020 from non-oil sectors, other sectors such as transport remained in the negative.

“The economy since then has sustained a tepid growth in the first quarter of 2021, with a growth of 0.51 percent consolidating our exit from recession in the fourth quarter”, she said.

Recalling how Nigeria exited recession despite the impact of the pandemic, she noted that this had an attendant “negative growth” on the Nigerian economy as a result of the significant and sudden drop in crude oil price in the international market.

Kehinde Ogunyale

Reporting on the data-driven economy, and investigations.

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