ABUJA, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA)-Nigeria’s non-oil exports climbed to a record $6.1bn in 2025, representing the sector’s strongest showing since the Nigerian Export Promotion Council was created almost 50 years ago.
The performance reflects an 11.5 per cent year-on-year increase from the $5.4bn recorded in 2024, highlighting accelerating progress in Nigeria’s push to diversify its economy away from crude oil.
The Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the NEPC, Nonye Ayeni, revealed this on Monday in Abuja while presenting her annual scorecard and the 2026 non-oil export outlook.
Ayeni explained that figures obtained from pre-shipment inspection agencies showed Nigeria had exceeded its previous peak, describing the 2025 result as a landmark achievement for formal and documented trade.
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“Ladies and gentlemen, based on the records obtained from pre-shipment inspection agencies, Nigerian non-oil export performance in 2025 reached an all-time high.
The non-oil export sector rose to approximately 6.1 billion U.S. dollars, representing a year-on-year growth of about 11.5 per cent over and above the 5.4 billion U.S. dollars recorded in 2024.
“This marks the highest non-oil export value achieved in the country for formal documented trade in the country and also from the inception of the council almost 50 years ago.
So we have indeed beaten our own records of last year. So Nigeria has 6.1 billion U.S. dollars in terms of value for non-oil export.”
She attributed the $6.1bn export value to increased activity across multiple value chains, driven by wider market access and greater diversification of export products.
In terms of volume, Ayeni said non-oil exports also expanded significantly, rising to 8.02 million metric tonnes in 2025 from 7.29 million metric tonnes in 2024, an increase of about 10 per cent.
According to her, the growth spanned agricultural produce, processed and semi-processed goods, industrial raw materials and solid minerals, signalling steady progress in value addition and product variety.
“In 2025 alone, Nigeria exported a total of 281 non-oil products. This reflects our steady transition towards value-added exports and deeper integration into global value chains,” Ayeni said.
She, however, warned that the figures did not fully reflect Nigeria’s export capacity, noting that a sizeable volume of trade still takes place informally across land borders.
Ayeni said the council was collaborating with the National Bureau of Statistics, the Central Bank of Nigeria and other relevant agencies to capture informal trade in official data, enhance accuracy and strengthen export-support policies.
She added that reforms, incentives and capacity-building programmes would be stepped up in 2026 to maintain momentum and further expand Nigeria’s non-oil export base.
The strong performance comes as the Federal Government intensifies efforts to boost foreign exchange earnings, stabilise the naira and reduce exposure to oil price volatility by strengthening non-oil export revenues.