Agriculture, construction, and services lead private sector’s expansion activities

According to the Stanbic IBTC Bank’s Purchasing Managers’ Index™ (PMI®) for October 2025, Nigeria’s private sector continued to expand, reflecting ongoing positive trends in business activity. The headline PMI reading climbed to 54.0 points, up by 0.6 points from September’s 53.4, signaling a stronger pace of improvement. This marked the 11th straight month of growth in operating conditions, with October delivering the fastest rate of output expansion seen in the past six months. Key industries, including agriculture, construction, and services, all contributed to this robust performance.

This acceleration in growth was fueled primarily by easing inflationary pressures and a surge in customer demand, prompting companies to ramp up their operations. Businesses responded by introducing new products and scaling up production to meet the heightened orders. Additionally, the report highlighted an uptick in employment levels, as firms hired more staff—the fifth consecutive month of job gains—pointing to brighter prospects for the labor market and greater optimism among enterprises about the domestic economy’s recovery.

That said, challenges persisted, with frequent electricity disruptions cited as a major factor leading to accumulations of unfinished work and backlogs in some operations. These infrastructure-related issues underscore potential constraints on further productivity gains.

Overall, the steady expansion in Nigeria’s private sector underscores resilience and rebuilding momentum in economic activity. To sustain and enhance this trajectory, policymakers could focus on targeted interventions, such as upgrading power infrastructure to minimize outages, creating more favorable tax policies, easing access to credit for businesses, and lowering regulatory burdens—particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises—to help alleviate costs and foster long-term growth.