Key points
- Federal Government says it will sustain non-oil export growth through value addition, market expansion and improved competitiveness.
- Nigeria’s non-oil exports rose to a record $6.1 billion in 2025, up 11.5 per cent from 2024.
- The government says Foreign Direct Investment increased from $377 million in 2023 to $923 million in 2025.
- The strategy includes expanding export clusters, reducing logistics costs and attracting more long-term productive investment.
Main story
The Federal Government says it will sustain the growth of Nigeria’s non-oil exports by promoting value addition, expanding access to international markets and improving the competitiveness of export products.
The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Jumoke Oduwole, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Abuja.
Oduwole said the government was also working to attract more long-term productive foreign investment while sustaining reforms aimed at strengthening investor confidence.
She said Nigeria recorded about $2 billion in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) between 2023 and 2025, based on the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) capital importation data.
According to her, FDI rose from about $377 million in 2023 to $675 million in 2024 and $923 million in 2025.
The minister said recorded FDI more than doubled over the three-year period and increased by about 37 per cent between 2024 and 2025.
She, however, cautioned against confusing FDI with total capital importation, explaining that Nigeria attracted $23.22 billion in total foreign capital inflows in 2025.
Of that amount, she said, portfolio investment accounted for $19.74 billion, while FDI contributed $923 million.
Oduwole explained that portfolio investment and long-term productive FDI have different implications for industrial development and job creation.
She noted that publicly available NBS sector rankings relate to total capital importation rather than FDI-specific investments.
According to her, banking and financial services attracted the largest share of total capital inflows, while a sector-specific breakdown of FDI would require reconciled transaction-level data from the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC), NBS and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The minister said investor confidence appeared to be improving, citing an increase in total capital importation from $12.32 billion in 2024 to $23.22 billion in 2025.
She added that total capital importation reached $10.37 billion in the first quarter of 2026, representing an 83.83 per cent increase compared with the corresponding period of 2025.
Oduwole attributed the improvement to ongoing economic reforms, greater transparency in the foreign exchange market and trade facilitation measures, including the launch of the first phase of the National Single Window in March 2026.
She noted that portfolio investment accounted for about 85 per cent of total capital inflows in 2025, while the ministry would continue to promote policy consistency, faster approvals, investment retention and stronger industrial capacity.
On economic diversification, the minister said Nigeria’s non-oil exports reached a record $6.1 billion in 2025, representing an 11.5 per cent increase from $5.46 billion recorded in 2024.
She said export volume also increased by 10 per cent from 7.29 million metric tonnes to 8.02 million metric tonnes, with Nigeria exporting 281 different non-oil products during the year.
According to her, cocoa and its derivatives, urea, cashew nuts, sesame and gold dore were among the country’s leading non-oil export earners.
Oduwole said the government’s strategy over the next three years would focus on increasing exports of value-added products, processed agricultural goods, manufactured products, services and digital exports.
She added that the strategy includes expanding production capacity, improving standards, developing export clusters and reducing logistics costs to strengthen Nigeria’s export performance.
The issues
Nigeria is seeking to diversify its economy by increasing non-oil exports and attracting more productive long-term investment that supports industrial growth, employment and foreign exchange earnings.
What’s being said
“The ministry would sustain growth in the value and volume of non-oil exports over the next three years.” — Jumoke Oduwole, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment
What’s next
The government plans to deepen trade reforms, expand export capacity and improve market access while pursuing policies aimed at attracting more productive foreign investment.
Bottom line
The Federal Government is banking on value addition, export diversification and sustained investment reforms to grow non-oil exports and reduce Nigeria’s dependence on crude oil revenues.
