Activities in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) contributed 19.78% to Nigeria’s real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Q2 2024.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) disclosed this in the Q2 2024 GDP statistics released on Monday.
This shows a marginal increase in contribution when compared to the 19.54% recorded in the same period last year.
Quarter on quarter, the sector also recorded an increase in contribution when compared with the preceding quarter. The NBS data showed that ICT contributed 17.89% to the real GDP in Q1 2024.
According to NBS, the ICT sector comprises the four activities of Telecommunications and Information Services; Publishing; Motion Picture, Sound Recording, and Music Production; and Broadcasting.
The ICT sector in the quarter under review recorded a growth rate of 4.44% year-on-year. This was driven largely by activities in the telecommunications sub-sector, which contributed 16.36% to the GDP in the real term.
The NBS data further revealed that the ICT sector contributed 14.19% to the total Nominal GDP in the second quarter of 2024, lower than the rate of 14.83% recorded in the same quarter of 2023 and higher than the 13.12% it contributed in the preceding quarter.
In nominal terms, the sector growth was recorded at 11.86% (year-on-year), a 29.81% points decrease from the rate of 41.67% recorded in the same quarter of 2023, and 2.08% points lower than the rate recorded in the preceding quarter.
In a Whitepaper released in June, the Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, the ICT sector has made significant contributions to the economy between Q3 2023 and Q1 2024.
“Over the last three quarters (Q3, 2023 to Q1, 2024), representing President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s time in office, the available data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS, June 2024) on the GDP of the Information and Communication sectors show that the nominal value of the sectors’ contribution grew from N7.1 trillion in Q3, 2023 to N8.35 trillion in Q4, 2023.
“Similar to the performance of many key sectors, it was followed by a “patterned fall” in Q1, 2024 to N7.86 trillion,” he said.
