Yemisi Izuora
Experts in the oil sector have reacted to the news which indicated that Nigeria has finally crawled out of economic recession.
Acting CEO of Proxima energy, Adedayo Ojo, said the relative stability in the exchange rate has improved investors confidence in the economy.
Ojo told Oriental News Nigeria, that Nigeria’s oil and gas sector contributed immensely toward stabilizing the national economy.
“First, the exemption by OPEC is a major factor, more importantly the deal made by government with government Joint Venture Partners on paying arrears of money owed has restored confidence and the International Oil Companies have begun to revisit abandoned work programs. This has resulted on resuming contracting to vendors and suppliers.
It will be recalled that after suffering contraction for five consecutive quarters, the Nigerian economy is now officially on the rebound as announced by the National Bureau of Statistics NBS in its second quarter Gross Domestic Product Q2 GDP report Tuesday.
According to the report, the economy grew at 0.55 per cent (year-on-year) in real terms, in the second quarter Q2 of 2017, indicating the exit of the economy from recession. The 2017 second quarter growth rate of 0.55 per cent (year-on-year) was 2.04 per cent higher than the rate recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2016 (-1.49%) and higher by 1.46 per cent points from rate recorded in the preceding quarter, revised to –0.91% from –0.52% as a result of the reviewed crude output for March 2017. Real GDP growth for quarter on quarter was 3.23 per cent, while the aggregate GDP for the quarter stood at N26.9 million in nominal terms, compared to N23.5 million in Q2 2016, resulting in a nominal GDP growth of 14.60 per cent. The report showed that performances in four main economic activities viz; oil, agriculture, manufacturing and trade were responsible for leap-frogging the economy out of recession. Consequently, within the period under review, oil production is estimated to have averaged at 1.84 million barrels per day, 0.15 million barrels higher than the daily average production recorded in the first quarter of 2017 (June 2017 is estimated and may be revised). Oil production during the quarter was higher by 0.03 million barrels per day relative to the corresponding quarter in 2016, which recorded an output of 1.81mbpd. Furthermore, oil output for March 2017 has been revised and this affected average output for the first quarter 2017 from 1.83mbpd to 1.69mbpd. “The major driver of growth in the non-oil sector was the Agriculture Sector (Crop Production), finance and insurance, electricity, gas, steam, air conditioning supply and other services”, the report stated, adding that the non-oil sector grew by 0.45 per cent in real terms during the quarter. In real terms, the non-oil sector contributed 91.11 percent to the nation’s GDP, lower from share recorded in the second quarter of 2016 (91.21 percent) and in the first quarter of 2017 (91.47 percent).