Nigeria’s economy expanded by 3.13% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2025, according to updated figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). This growth figure, derived from a newly rebased economic model using 2019 as the base year, offers a more current reflection of structural shifts in the nation’s economy.
The rebasing exercise—covering economic data from 2019 through 2023—has redefined sectoral weightings and captured changes in industry contributions and data collection methodology. The result is a recalibrated picture of the country’s economic performance, although the growth pace remains modest compared to the ambitious $1 trillion GDP goal set by President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
Under the updated framework, the Nigerian economy recorded 3.13% growth in Q1 2025, outpacing the 2.27% achieved in the same period last year. The previous estimate for Q1 2024 growth was 2.98%, which has now been revised due to the rebasing.
Despite the improvement, the latest figure also represents a slowdown from the final quarter of 2024, when rebased data showed growth of 3.76%. The Q4 2024 estimate before the rebasing had been 3.84%.
The NBS indicated that while the rebased data provides better insight into Nigeria’s evolving economic landscape, it also reveals the underlying challenges facing sustainable, high-impact growth. The revised methodology aligns Nigeria’s statistical measurement with international best practices, but underscores the need for deeper sectoral reforms to drive real GDP expansion.
