Nigeria's economy contracted −6.10% in Q2 2020 — the COVID-19 shock and the deepest quarterly fall in the dataset. It returned to growth through 2021 and has stayed positive since, reaching 3.97% by Q4 2024.
Real GDP growth shows whether the economy is genuinely expanding, with the effect of rising prices stripped out. Steady positive growth since 2021 signals a real recovery — even as inflation and the Naira came under heavy pressure over the same period.
In the chart below, green bars are quarters of expansion and red bars are contraction; the dashed line marks zero. The second chart shows nominal GDP in US dollars, which can move differently because it also reflects the exchange rate.
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What this shows: Nigeria's quarterly real GDP growth. The economy fell −6.10% in the 2020 COVID shock, then climbed back to positive territory — seventeen straight quarters of growth (every quarter since Q4 2020) through Q4 2024.
This differs from the real growth rate chart above — a weaker Naira can shrink the USD-denominated figure even when the local economy is growing.