Industry as a whole contributed only 11.3 per cent of the GDP in 1960–70, growing significantly in the next two decades to a high of 41.0 per cent in 1981–1990, owing largely to the crude petroleum and gas production during the decades. The contribution contracted to 38.6 per cent in the 1990s and further to 29.4 per cent during 2001–2009.
These numbers, in fact, belie the poor contribution of the manufacturing subsector to aggregate output in Nigeria compared with its peers in Asia and Latin America. Indeed, the contribution of the manufacturing component has on average been below 5.0 per cent in the last two decades.