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Non-oil exports emerging as Nigeria’s new source of FX – NOA - BUSINESSDAY
Nigeria’s non-oil exports are rapidly becoming the country’s new main source of foreign currency, earning nearly as much as crude oil for the first time in decades, the National Orientation Agency (NOA) has said.
The NOA highlighted this shift in its editorial for The Explainer, a weekly publication, noting that the country’s traditional reliance on crude oil for income is changing rapidly.
For the past ten years, Nigeria’s oil and gas industry has faced many challenges. The NOA described earnings from this sector as “less than impressive” during this period. Meanwhile, exports of non-oil products have been growing steadily.
In the first six months of 2025, Nigeria earned $3.22 billion from selling non-oil products abroad. This figure came remarkably close to the $3.47 billion the country made from crude oil sales during the same period.
These figures come from the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), which tracks the country’s export performance.
The NOA emphasised the significance of these results, stating: “Given the recent data from the NEPC and the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the non-oil export sector seems to have been well positioned as Nigeria’s new source of foreign exchange.”
The agency described this development as an “unprecedented record in decades,” noting that non-oil export earnings “almost surpassed crude oil accruals” in the first half of 2025.
The $3.22 billion in non-oil exports represented 4.04 million metric tonnes of products. These exports consisted primarily of agricultural products and manufactured goods. The performance shows remarkable improvement compared to the previous year. In the first half of 2024, Nigeria exported 3.83 million metric tonnes of non-oil products worth $2.69 billion. The 2025 figures represent a 19.59% increase in value.
The NOA connected this export success to other economic improvements under President Bola Tinubu’s administration. The agency pointed to recent tax reforms that have also increased government revenue beyond what oil provides. Both the export growth and tax reforms were described as “remarkable breakthroughs”.
