Banks, insurance companies and other financial institutions’ contribution to the economy rose by 8.54 percent, or N151.88 billion to N1.93 trillion in the first quarter of this year compared with N1.78 trillion in the corresponding period of 2025, according to latest data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

New Telegraph’s analysis of the “Nigerian GDP Report Q1’26,” recently released by the NBS, shows that while banks and other financial institutions contributed a total of N1.75 trillion to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the first three months of this year, insurance companies contributed N180.95 billion.

The report stated: “The Finance and Insurance Sector consists of the two subsectors, financial Institutions, and Insurance, in which the former accounted for 90.62 per cent and the latter 9.38 per cent of the sector, respectively in real terms in Q1 2026.

“The sector grew at 46.91 per cent in nominal terms (year-on-year), with the growth rate of financial institutions at 46.71 per cent and 48.80 per cent growth rate recorded for Insurance. The overall rate was higher than Q1 2025 by 25.89 per cent points, and higher by 20.33 per cent points than the preceding quarter.

The quarteron quarter growth was 18.86 per cent. The sector’s contribution to the nominal GDP was 3.83 per cent in Q1 2026, higher than the 3.07 per cent it represented a year previous, and higher than the contribution of 2.91 per cent it made in the preceding quarter.

“Growth in this sector in real terms totaled 8.54 per cent, lower by 6.49 per cent points from the rate recorded in the 2025 first quarter and higher by 0.24 per cent points from the rate recorded in the preceding quarter. Quarteron-quarter, growth in real terms stood at 17.77 per cent.