The Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) says the country’s non-oil exports recorded $1.791 billion as revenue in the first quarter (Q1) of 2025.

Nonye Ayeni, executive director (ED) of NEPC, spoke on Monday in Abuja.

“This year, the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) reported the highest value of export since it was established 49 years ago with a year-on-year increase of 20.77% from $4.517 billion in 2023 to $5.456 billion in 2024,” Ayeni said. 

“The council working with our supervising ministry, federal ministry of industry, trade and investment, and other stakeholders remains committed towards continuing this trajectory of increasing the volume and value of non-oil exports from Nigeria by providing support to the exporting community in the areas of capacity building, standardisation, enhancing market access and others”.

The NEPC ED also said “these efforts are impacting positively on non-oil export volumes and proceeds”.

“The year 2024 result lends credence to the fact that several export intervention programmes/projects initiated and executed by the Council, especially the ‘Double Your Exports’ campaign, are now yielding results,” Ayeni said.

“Nigeria’s non-oil products exported in the first quarter of 2025 were valued at US$1.791 billion.

“This is a 24.75% increase over and above $ 1.436 billion reported in the first quarter of 2024.

“The volume also increased to 2.416 million metric tonnes, an increase of 243.44% from 1.937 million metric tonnes recorded in the first quarter of 2024.”

‘PRODUCTS EXPORTED INCREASED TO 197 FROM 162’

Ayeni further said that in the first quarter of 2025, 197 distinct products were exported.

“This figure reflects an increase compared to the one hundred and sixty-two (162) products recorded in the first quarter of 2024,” she said.

“These products ranged from manufactured and semi-processed goods to industrial extracts and agricultural commodities.

“Based on information received from Pre-shipment Inspection Agents (PIAs), of the top-20 products exported in the first quarter of 2025, Cocoa and its derivatives, including cocoa butter, cocoa liquor, cocoa cake came first, followed by Urea, Cashew Nut, Sesame Seed, Gold Dore, Cocoa Butter, Aluminium Ingots, Copper Ingot, Soya Beans/meal, Rubber were the top of the list.

“The top commodity in terms of total non-oil export, accounting for 45.02%, was cocoa beans. urea/fertiliser held the second position at 19.32% while cashew nuts came third with 5.81 percent of the total exported products.”

She added that Indorama Eleme Fertiliser and Chemical Limited and Starlink Global & Ideal Limited, led the top 20 export companies, accounting for 12.07 percent and 10 percent, respectively.

“This is attributed to their notable export value of fertiliser and cocoa products,” the ED said.

“Ten (10) member countries of ECOWAS actively engaged in importing Nigerian products throughout the first quarter of 2025,” she said.

“These exports, totalling 362,126.92 metric tons and amounting to $63.060 million, constituted 3.52 percent of the total export value and also a significant increase of 223.10 percent when compared to the recorded figure of $19.517 million for the first quarter of the year 2024.”

Ayeni said Nigeria also exported to other African countries in the first quarter of 2025.

“The value of these exports, totalling 281,480.29 metric tons valued at $ 32.732 million, represented 1.83% of the total export value,” Ayeni said.

“This is evidence that the non-oil export is increasing and all stakeholders are taking advantage of the potential and opportunities inherent in the sector.”

Ayeni said the evidence also lends credence to the fact that AFCFTA holds the key to intra-African trade as it “promises to be the largest free trade area in the world both by area and by the number of countries, connecting the 55 countries in Africa with 1.3 million people”.