The insurance sector has increased by 5.6 per cent in the first quarter of 2020 financial period.
This is according to latest statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics on the 2020 Q1 Gross Domestic Product report.
A section of the report read, “The finance and insurance sector consists of the two subsectors, financial institutions and insurance, which accounted for 87.02 per cent and 12.98 per cent of the sector respectively in real terms in Q1 2020.
“As a whole, the sector grew at 23.96 per cent in nominal terms (year-on-year), with the growth rate of financial institutions as 27.26 per cent and 5.64 per cent growth rate recorded for insurance.
“The sector growth rate was higher than what was recorded in Q1 2019 by 27.92 per cent points, and 0.63 per cent points higher than the preceding quarter.”
Quarter-on-quarter growth was 3.08 per cent.
The sector’s contribution to the overall nominal GDP was 3.57 per cent in Q1 2020, higher than the 3.23 per cent it contributed a year before, and the contribution of 3.12 per cent it made in the preceding quarter.
It noted that growth in this sector in real terms stood at 20.79 per cent, higher by 28.39 percentage points from the rate recorded in 2019, and up by 0.61 per cent points from the rate recorded the previous quarter.
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Quarter-on-quarter, growth in real terms stood at 2.42 per cent.
The contribution of finance and insurance to real GDP totalled 3.81 per cent, higher than the contribution of 3.21 per cent recorded in the first quarter of 2019 by 0.60 per cent points, and higher than 3.19 per cent recorded in Q4 2019 by 0.62 per cent points.
According to the NBS, in the first quarter of 2020, Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product grew by 1.87 per cent (year-on-year) in real terms.
This performance was recorded against the backdrop of significant global disruptions resulting from the COVID-19 public health crisis, a sharp fall in oil prices and restricted international trade.
The performance recorded in Q1 2020 represented of -0.23 per cent points compared to Q1 2019 and -0.68 per cent points compared to Q4 2019, reflecting the earliest effects of the disruption, particularly on the non-oil economy.
Quarter-on-quarter, real GDP growth was -14.27 per cent compared to 5.59 per cent recorded in the preceding quarter.
