Nigeria’s Business Activity Expands for 16th Straight Month – CBN

Nigeria’s economic activity continued to grow in March 2026, showing the 16th consecutive month of expansion.

This is according to the latest Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) report from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

It shows that the composite PMI stood at 53.2 points, reflecting broad-based growth as 31 of the 36 surveyed subsectors reported improvement.

The industry sector led the expansion with a PMI of 54.0 points, supported by higher production output, rising new orders, and increased employment.

Services remained in growth territory at 52.0 points, marking its fourteenth consecutive month of expansion, while agriculture held steady at 52.8 points, continuing a twenty-month streak of growth.

Among the subsectors, Electrical Equipment posted the strongest overall growth, while Educational Services and Forestry led gains in the services and agriculture sectors, respectively.

On the other hand, the Primary Metal subsector recorded the steepest decline, falling to 32.9 points, alongside contractions in Chemical & Pharmaceutical Products and Accommodation & Food Services.

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The report also highlighted rising costs, with input price indices outpacing output prices across all sectors, suggesting businesses are facing higher expenses not fully reflected in final prices.

Nevertheless, strong new orders (52.2 points) and faster supplier delivery times (56.3 points) point to sustained demand and operational efficiency.

The CBN noted that while growth moderated slightly from February, the overall outlook for Nigeria’s economy in the first quarter of 2026 remains positive, with expansion broad-based across most sectors.

A further review of the report shows that overall economic activity maintained its growth streak, with 31 of 36 subsectors expanding and five subsectors contracting, as shown in the table below.

Sector	Subsector	PMI Index	Status	Notes
Industry	Electrical Equipment	63.6	Expanding	Strongest growth across all subsectors
Industry	Water Supply, Sewerage & Waste Management	62.2	Expanding
Industry	Printing & Related Support Activities	61.9	Expanding
Industry	Petroleum & Coal Products	58.1	Expanding
Industry	Cement	56.6	Expanding
Industry	Construction	56.0	Expanding
Industry	Food, Beverage & Tobacco Products	55.9	Expanding
Industry	Manufacturing	53.8	Expanding
Industry	Fabricated Metal Products	53.7	Expanding
Industry	Mining and quarrying; Electricity, gas and water supply	53.1	Expanding
Industry	Nonmetallic Mineral Products	52.9	Expanding
Industry	Paper Products	52.9	Expanding
Industry	Furniture & Related Products	52.8	Expanding
Industry	Transportation Equipment	51.7	Expanding
Industry	Electricity, Gas, Steam and Air Conditioning Supply	50.5	Expanding
Industry	Primary Metal	32.9	Contracting	Steepest decline in the report
Industry	Chemical & Pharmaceutical Products	44.9	Contracting
Industry	Textile, Apparel, Leather & Footwear	48.8	Contracting
Services	Educational Services	56.9	Expanding	Highest growth in the Services sector
Services	Utilities	56.6	Expanding
Services	Finance & Insurance	55.1	Expanding
Services	Information & Communication	53.9	Expanding
Services	Repair, Maintenance/Washing of Motor Vehicle	53.8	Expanding
Services	Motion Pictures, Cinema, Sound Recording and Music Production	53.7	Expanding
Services	Management of Companies	53.4	Expanding
Services	Wholesale Trade	51.7	Expanding
Services	Transportation & Warehousing	51.7	Expanding
Services	Arts, Entertainment & Recreation	51.3	Expanding
Services	Real Estate, Rental & Leasing	51.0	Expanding
Services	Health Care & Social Assistance	50.4	Expanding
Services	Accommodation & Food Services	48.5	Contracting
Services	Professional, Scientific, & Technical Services	49.0	Contracting
Agriculture	Forestry	56.3	Expanding	Strongest growth in Agriculture
Agriculture	Livestock	55.0	Expanding
Agriculture	Crop Production	51.4	Expanding
Agriculture	Agricultural Support Services	50.6	Expanding
Agriculture	Fishing/Fish Farming	50.6	Expanding