NEPC
By Olayiwola Mercy
Nigeria’s non-oil exports have hit an all-time high of $6.1 billion in 2025, marking a significant milestone in the country’s economic diversification efforts. This represents an 11.5% year-on-year increase from the $5.4 billion recorded in 2024. The Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) attributes this growth to improved activity across various value chains, expanding market access, and increasing product diversification.
The country’s non-oil export sector has been driven by agricultural commodities, processed and semi-processed goods, industrial inputs, and solid minerals. In 2025, Nigeria exported a total of 281 non-oil products to 120 countries, with the Netherlands, Brazil, and India emerging as the top three destinations. The Netherlands accounted for 17.53% of non-oil exports, followed by Brazil (10.35%) and India (7.63%).
The volume of non-oil exports also saw a significant increase, rising by 10% to 8.02 million metric tonnes in 2025 from 7.29 million metric tonnes in 2024. This growth demonstrates improved export activity across multiple value chains and market destinations. Top-performing non-oil exports for the year included cocoa and its derivatives, urea, cashew, sesame seed, gold dore, aluminium ingots, copper ingots, soya beans and meal, and rubber.
The NEPC’s Executive Director, Nonye Ayeni, attributed the strong performance to ongoing reforms, export incentives, and capacity-building initiatives. She noted that while the figures are impressive, they don’t fully capture the country’s export potential, as a significant volume of trade still occurs informally across Nigeria’s land borders.
The Federal Government has been working to boost foreign exchange earnings, stabilise the naira, and reduce the economy’s vulnerability to oil price shocks by deepening non-oil export revenues. The NEPC is partnering with the National Bureau of Statistics, the Central Bank of Nigeria, and other stakeholders to mainstream informal trade into official export records, improve data accuracy, and strengthen policy support for exporters.
In Africa, Nigeria exported non-oil products to 11 ECOWAS member states, with total exports valued at $271.255 million, representing 4.46% of total non-oil export value. However, this marks a decline of 13.08% from 2024 due to the exit of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger from the bloc.
The NEPC has expressed optimism about 2026, assuring that it will deepen capacity building, expand export clusters, curb rejects, promote value addition, and broaden exporter participation. The council is working to ensure Nigeria becomes a hub and takes its position as the Giant of Africa .
