Mining of oil, solid minerals suffers 35% decline, says NBS

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has said that the mining of oil and other solid minerals in the first quarter of 2016 suffered a drop by 34.98 per cent across the country.

According to the bureau, the value decline is in connection with the global drop in the price of crude in the global market.

Four main activities make up the mining and quarrying sector; they are crude petroleum and natural gas, coal mining, metal ore and quarrying as well as other minerals.

According to the First Quarter (Q1) GDP report made available by the NBS in Abuja, on a nominal basis, the Mining and Quarrying sector slowed by 34.98 per cent (year-on-year) during the first quarter of the year, adding that the sector contributed only 4.14 per cent to the total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the first quarter of the year under review.

The bureau further said that this was 11.22 per cent higher than growth recorded in Q1 2015, but marginally higher than growth recorded in the previous quarter.

“The decline of 34.98 per cent in year-on-year growth is attributable to the falling oil prices. The sector contributed 4.14 per cent to overall GDP in Q1 2016, lower than the contribution recorded in
same quarter of 2015 and the preceding quarter by 2.60 per cent points and 1.04 per cent points respectively.

“In real terms, Mining and Quarrying sector slowed at 2.96% (year-on-year) in Q1 2016, a relative improvement from Q1 2015 by 4.94% points and Q4 2015 by 5.08%” the report said.

However, whereas crude oil output weighted on growth, the sector was supported by a substantial improvement in output in Metal Ores. The contribution of Mining and Quarrying to Real GDP in Q1 2016 was 10.34%, marginally lower relative to the corresponding quarter of 2015 yet higher from the previous quarter by 2.13%.

On the Agriculture sector which is made up of four sub-activities, namely: Crop Production, Livestock, Forestry and Fishing, the sector in nominal terms grew by 14.15% year-on- year in Q1 2016. This was higher than growth rates recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2015 and the Q4 2015 by 6.71% points and 4.65% points respectively.

Growth in the sector was driven by output in crop production accounting for 83.67% of overall growth of the sector. Agriculture contributed 19.17% to nominal GDP during the quarter under review.