Banks, insurance companies and other financial institutions’ contribution to the economy rose by 14.54 per cent, or N835.34 billion to N6.58 trillion in 2025 from N5.74 trillion in the preceding year, latest data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shows.
New Telegraph’s analysis of the “Nigerian GDP Report Q4’25,” released by the NBS, over the weekend, indicates that the contribution of banks, insurance firms and other financial institutions to the country’s real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) stood at N1.78 trillion in the first quarter of 2025; N1.65 trillion in Q2’25; N1.512 trillion in Q3’25 and N1.64 trillion in Q4.
Further analysis of the NBS report shows that while banks and other financial institutions contributed a total of N5.87 trillion to GDP last year, the insurance sector contributed N710.58 billion. The report stated: “The Finance and Insurance Sector consists of the two subsectors, Financial Institutions, and Insurance, in which the former accounted for 90.43 per cent and the latter 9.57 per cent of the sector, respectively in real terms in Q4 2025.
“The sector grew at 26.58 per cent in nominal terms (year-on-year), with the growth rate of Financial Institutions at 26.15 per cent and 30.83 per cent growth rate recorded for Insurance.
The overall rate was lower than Q4 2024 by 0.86 per cent points, and lower by 13.97 per cent points than the preceding quarter. The quarter-on quarter growth was 13.00 per cent. Overall, growth in 2025 stood at 38.51%, higher than the 22.82 per cent recorded in 2024.
“The sector’s contribution to the nominal GDP was 2.91 per cent in Q4 2025, higher than the 2.70 per cent it represented a year previous, and higher than the contribution of 2.78 per cent it made in the preceding quarter.
In total, a contribution of 3.30 per cent was recorded in 2025 relative to 2.82 per cent in 2024. “Growth in this sector in real terms totaled 8.30 per cent, higher by 2.31 per cent points from the rate recorded in the 2024 fourth quarter and lower by 11.33 per cent points from the rate recorded in the preceding quarter. “Quarter-on-quarter, growth in real terms stood at 8.37 per cent.
Overall, growth stood at 14.54 per cent, higher than the 2.95 per cent recorded in 2024. The contribution of Finance and Insurance to real GDP totalled 2.56 per cent, higher than the contribution of 2.46 per cent recorded in the fourth quarter of 2024 by 0.10 per cent points, and lower than 2.6 per cent recorded in Q3 2025 by 0.09% points. In total, 2.97 per cent was contributed in 2025, higher than 2.69 per cent in 2024.”
According to the NBS, the top 10 contributing activities to real GDP in Q4’2025 are, crop production(20.44%), trade(16.84%), real estate (14.57%), telecommunications and information services(8.12%) and livestock(6.05%). Others are construction (3.91%), crude petroleum and natural gas (2.87%), public administration (2.62%), food beverage and tobacco(2.61%) and professional scientific and technical services (2.43%).
The NBS, in its overview of Nigeria’s GDP in Q4’25, had also stated: “Following the rebasing of the Gross Domestic Product using 2019 as the base year, previous quarterly GDP estimates were benchmarked to the rebased annual estimates to align the old series with the new rebased estimates. This procedure provided a new quarterly GDP series, which is compared to the 2025 fourth quarter estimates. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 4.07 per cent (year-on-year) in real terms in the fourth quarter of 2025.
