The Nigerian economy grew by 1.87% over the last year in the first three months of 2020. from a year earlier.

This is according to the first quarter (Q1) GDP report, released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday.

The performance recorded in Q1 2020 represents a drop of 0.23% points compared to Q1 2019 (2.10%) and 0.68% points decline compared to Q4 2019 (2.55%).

The drop is a reflection of the effects of disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the crash in oil price.

Quarter on quarter, real GDP growth was –14.27% compared to 5.59% recorded in the preceding quarter.

Nigeria’s oil sector recorded a real growth rate of 5.06% (year-on-year) in Q1 2020, indicating an increase of 6.51% points relative to the rate recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2019 (-1.46%).

An average daily oil production of 2.07 million barrels per day (mbpd) was recorded in Q1 2020. The production level was higher than the 1.99mbpd recorded in the same quarter of 2019.

The non-oil sector grew by 1.55% in real terms during the reference quarter (Q1 2020), this was slower by -0.93% points compared to the rate recorded during the same quarter of 2019 (2.47%), and –0.72% points slower than the fourth quarter of 2019 (2.26%).

The growth in non-oil sector was driven mainly by Information and Communication (Telecommunications), Financial and Insurance (Financial Institutions), Agriculture (Crop Production), Mining and Quarrying (Crude Petroleum & Natural Gas), and Construction.

Also, the report states that the non-oil sector contributed 90.50% to the nation’s GDP in the first quarter of 2020, less than its share in the first quarter of 2019 which was 90.78% and the fourth quarter of 2019 recorded as 92.68%.