Nigeria’s 2024 GDP just got a $65 billion boost after the 2025 rebasing

  • The IMF’s new 2019 GDP base year added between $20 billion and $235 billion annually to Nigeria’s GDP from 1990–2025.
  • 2014 saw the biggest jump — an upward revision of $235.1 billion, raising GDP to $811.1 billion from $576.0 billion under the old base.
  • The rebased data consistently show 40–45% higher GDP values through the 2000s and 2010s, revealing a larger economy than earlier estimates.
  • The impact was strongest during Nigeria’s oil boom years (2007–2014), when rebasing captured fast-growing sectors like digital services, informal trade, and modular refining.

Nigeria’s GDP in 2024 was revised upward from $187.6 billion to $252.1 billion following the IMF’s October 2025 rebasing, which adopted 2019 as the new base year.

The update marks one of the most extensive revisions in Nigeria’s economic history, adding between $20 billion and $235 billion to annual GDP figures across 1990–2025. The rebase captures a broader range of economic activity, including the digital economy, informal agriculture, modular oil refining, and social insurance schemes previously unrecorded in national accounts. The most dramatic change occurred in 2014, when GDP surged from $576 billion to $811 billion—Nigeria’s highest ever—briefly placing the country among the world’s 20 largest economies.

The revision reflects how expanded data coverage and modern statistical standards can significantly reshape the understanding of an economy’s true scale.

Source:

International Monetary Fund (IMF)

Period:

1990-2030
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