Nigeria’s manufacturing sector faced a challenging year in 2025, contributing 8.05% to real GDP, down from 8.24% in 2024, according to the National Bureau of Statistics’ Q4 GDP report.
Manufacturing Contribution Falls
The decline reflects structural weaknesses in a sector that struggles to match the broader economy’s growth, despite modest gains.
Moreover, manufacturing spans thirteen sub-sectors, including oil refining, cement, food and beverages, textiles, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, basic metals, and motor vehicles, yet growth remains uneven.
Sluggish Real Growth
In Q4 2025, manufacturing grew by just 1.13% year-on-year, lower than both the same quarter in 2024 and the preceding quarter.
However, on a quarter-on-quarter basis, growth improved to 9.01%, although this increase could not prevent its overall contribution from falling.
For the full year, the sector recorded real growth of 1.41%, slightly above 2024’s 1.20%, but its share of the economy continued to shrink.
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In Q4 alone, manufacturing contributed 7.40% to GDP, down from 7.62% a year earlier and below Q3 2025.
Nominal Growth Outpaces Output
Meanwhile, nominal figures show a stronger performance.
Manufacturing expanded by 12.96% in 2025, up from 10.84% in 2024, yet its nominal share of GDP fell to 8.46% from 8.85%.
In Q4, nominal growth slowed to 5.80%, well below Q4 2024’s 13.14%, indicating that rising prices, rather than production increases, drove much of the value growth.
Analysts emphasise that the gap between real and nominal performance highlights price effects.
Consequently, as the broader economy grew 4.07% in Q4, manufacturing’s lag demonstrates that the sector must overcome structural constraints to drive faster expansion and support Nigeria’s growth.
