Macroeconomic Report & Economic Updates

Nigeria produced a total of 999,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the month of April 2023, according to the latest monthly oil market report of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). This output, however, indicates a decline of 270,000bpd from the 1.27 million bpd produced in the month of March; it also represents the third successive decline in monthly oil production since February 2023 and the fourth production slump in the five months leading from December 2022. Consequently, Nigeria has once again lost its place as Africa’s highest crude oil producer, falling behind Angola, which produced a total of 1.06 million bpd in the period under review after improving by 91,000bpd from 972,000bpd in March 2023.

The monthly report by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) on the global movement in oil prices revealed that crude oil prices increased in April 2023. Specifically, the OPEC Reference Basket (ORB) increased, on average, from $78.45/Barrel in March 2023 to $84.13/Barrel in April 2023. This represents an increase of about 7.2 percent.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), in its Selected Food Prices Watch Report for March 2023, has stated that prices of food items such as beef, yam, beans, etc., witnessed increases in March 2023.

The prices of key energy products – petrol, kerosene, cooking gas, and diesel – have increased significantly in March 2023 compared to their respective levels in March 2022. According to NBS, the average price of petrol increased by 42.63 percent from N185.3 per litre in March 2022 to N264.29 in March 2023. Similarly, the average retail price of refilling a 5kg cylinder of cooking gas rose by 22.03 percent from N3,778.3 to N4,600.57, while the average retail price of diesel increased from N539.32 to N836.81 (55.9 percent) over the same period.

Electricity demand increased in Q3 2022, as the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) report shows.
Specifically, the report showed that total customer numbers increased by 1.20 percent from 10.81 million in Q2 2022 to 10.94 million on monthly basis. However, on yearly basis, the total customer numbers declined in Q3 2022 by 1.19 percent from 11.07 million in Q3 2021.