A key member of the country’s Organised Private Sector (OPS), the Center for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE), has predicted that the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is expected to close at the fourth quarter at about 3.6 per cent, in line with the International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s forecast.

The Director/Chief Executive Officer, CPPE, Dr. Muda Yusuf, who made this known yesterday in Lagos, said that that the country’s economy exhibited resilience on account of GDP performance despite the intense macroeconomic headwinds in 2024.

According to him, “the GDP grew at 2.98 per cent in the first quarter, 3.19 per cent in the second quarter and 3.46 per cent in the third quarter. It may close the year at about 3.6 per cent.

“This is at par with IMF forecasts for GDP growth for the subSahara Africa which is 3.6 per cent and better than global GDP forecast of 3.2 per cent.”

Speaking on the sectoral growth disparities in the nation’s economy, Dr. Yusuf said that the service sector continued to dominate the sectoral growth performance for most part of the year.

He stated that in Q3’24, the financial services sector outperformed other sectors with a growth performance of 32 per cent. Insurance grew by 19.8 per cent, road transport grew by 17.9 per cent and rail transportation 19.7 per cent.

However, real sector growth remained subdued during the year with agriculture posting a GDP growth of 1.14 per cent and manufacturing, 0.92 per cent in the third quarter of 2024. Air Transport, Quary & Minerals, Petroleum Refining and Textile sectors remained in recession as at third quarter of 2024.

Speaking on the economic implications, the CPPE CEO stated: “The implication is that sectors with high job creation potentials and prospects for economic inclusion are still struggling. This situation needs to be reversed to fix the current high unemployment and reduce poverty.

“The huge disparities in the growth of financial services and the rest of the economy are a reflection of the growing decoupling of the financial services sector from the real economy.

“It also exemplifies the failure of the financial intermediation role of the financial services sector in the Nigerian economy. It is a significant dysfunctionality in the economy which deserves the urgent attention of policy makers.

“The current reality is that investing in financial instruments has become much more profitable than investing in the real economy. The risk is also very low. “This is not consistent with our economic aspirations as it is a major disincentive to real sector investment. “