By Peter Omopo
ABUJA, July 27, 2025 — Nigeria is on course to become Africa’s third-largest economy by Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2025, surpassing Algeria, according to the National Orientation Agency (NOA).
The projection, published in the latest edition of NOA’s The Explainer, comes after the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revised the country’s GDP figures, showing a 38 per cent growth due to a rebasing exercise that adopted 2019 as the new base year.
According to the NOA, which operates under the Ministry of Information and National Orientation, the rebased data places Nigeria’s nominal GDP at ₦372.8 trillion ($243.7 billion) for 2024 — up from the previous estimate of $187.8 billion.
This puts Nigeria just behind Algeria, whose GDP stands at $247.63 billion, and positions Africa’s most populous nation to surpass it within the first quarter of 2025.
“The rebased GDP reflects previously excluded sectors such as e-commerce, mining, and informal economic activities,” the NOA noted.
“This not only pushed Nigeria’s economy to fourth place in Africa, but also reflects stronger economic diversification.”
The report adds that Nigeria’s economy grew 81.8 per cent between 2019 and 2024, despite the depreciation of the naira impacting the dollar-equivalent value of its GDP.
Breakdown of the economic structure shows services leading with 53.09%, followed by agriculture (25.83%) and industry (21.08%).
NOA’s editorial board, chaired by Information Minister Mohammed Idris, emphasized the significance of the rebasing, which highlighted the growing contributions of the informal and digital sectors — often previously underrepresented in official data.
The NOA stated that the latest economic figures show that Nigeria is firmly on the path to reclaiming its place among the top-tier economies on the continent, underscoring the importance of structural reforms and inclusive growth strategies.
