THE economy of Nigeria in recession could be said to have come to with a tiny breath of life at a wobbly growth rate of 0.55 per cent recorded in the Second Quarter of 2017.
The single and isolated sector that drove the marginal growth was essentially oil that had a leap of 1.64% over the previous quarter.
Overall, the GDP grew by some 2.04% abovr the Second Quarter of 2016, which is a great leap and attributable to the stabilization achieved in oil exploration in the Niger Delta that was quite volatile almost the entire 2016.
The major drvers cummulativrly were oil and gas, agriculture, electricity and the industrial sector.
Electricity and Gas jumped like a rocket by 35.5% maybe from the combined higher electricity tariff and lower gas prices, especially the domestic gas that seems to have encouraged higher consumption. Also, Nigeria’s electricity that is almost wholly hydro always experiences positive economy during the rains and this might have given some notches higher in power generation and distribution.
However, trade generally had a negative growth of 1.62%, and agriculture upping by 3.1% and the non-oil sector all together went up by 0.45%.
On the balance, with the total growth of 0.55%, it implies the oil sector contributed 0.10% of the drive up, a sign of the likelihood that it’s the expansion and development of the non-oil sector rather dependence on oil that would power Nigeria economy eventually.
