Nigeria's mineral production increased by 39.19% to 89.48 million tonnes in 2021 from 64.29 million tonnes in 2020, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.

Limestone, granite and laterite top the list of minerals mined last year, the bureau said in its new report.

The state of Ogun recorded the highest production with 32.04 million tonnes, followed by Kogi with 18.40 million tonnes and Cross River with 11.64 million tonnes. The lowest production was recorded in Borno, which recorded 231 tonnes last year.

Meanwhile, the NBS report indicated that the sector's contribution to real gross domestic product (GDP) stood at 5.5% in the fourth quarter of 2021, down from 6.09% in the same quarter of 2020. The annual growth of the sector stood at -7.79% in 2021.

The bureau revealed that the sector's contribution to real GDP in the first quarter of 2022 was 6.67%, up from 5.5% in the fourth quarter of 2021.

(Editing by Cleofe Maceda; cleofe.maceda@lseg.com)