Nigerian economy rose by 6.2 percent in the first quarter of this year, up from 4.6 percent in the same period last year, but slowed down a bit compared to the 6.7 percent it registered in the last quarter of 2013, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.

The growth was mainly due to a 7.2 percent growth in the service sector during the first three months of 2014. This was followed by a 5.5 rise in the agricultural sector and a 4.8 percent increase in the industrial sector.

BusinessDay reported NBS saying that agriculture was the main driver of the growth during the period under review. “This was as a result of increased farming activity in combination with high yield seedlings during the dry season,” the bureau stated.

The Statistics body said the country’s main revenue generating sector, oil, recorded a negative growth of was -6.60 percent in real terms, but this was a better performance than the -11.40 percent growth recorded in the corresponding 2013 quarter and the -9.36 percent growth recorded in the fourth quarter of 2013.

According to the NBS, average daily crude oil production in the first quarter stood at 2.26mbpd, down from the 2.29mbpd recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2013.

Non-oil sector grew by 8.21 percent, slowing marginally by 0.57 percent points from the fourth quarter of 2013, but a 0.76 percent points increase from the 7.44 percent growth recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2013.