Nigeria recorded a ₦3.18 trillion decline in crude oil exports during the first half of 2025, reflecting ongoing production challenges and global market shifts.
Figures from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) foreign trade report showed crude oil export earnings fell to ₦24.92 trillion, compared with ₦28.10 trillion in H1 2024 — an 11.3% year-on-year drop.
In Q1 2025, crude exports stood at ₦12.96 trillion but slipped further to ₦11.97 trillion in Q2. Oil’s contribution to overall exports fell from 71.2% in Q2 2024 to 52.6% in Q2 2025, signalling a major reduction in its dominance of Nigeria’s trade profile.
While crude revenues dwindled, non-crude exports grew sharply, surging from ₦8.79 trillion in H1 2024 to ₦18.43 trillion in H1 2025. Non-oil exports such as agriculture and solid minerals contributed just over ₦3 trillion per quarter, but the largest gains came from refined petroleum and semi-processed goods. This lifted non-crude exports’ share of total trade to 41%, up from 24% the previous year.
Despite the drop in crude, Nigeria’s overall trade balance improved, with total exports hitting ₦43.35 trillion and imports at ₦30.71 trillion, creating a surplus of ₦12.64 trillion — 54.6% higher than H1 2024.
Nigeria also spent ₦4 trillion on fuel imports in H1 2025, made up of ₦1.76 trillion in Q1 and ₦2.3 trillion in Q2. For context, the 2024 annual fuel import bill was ₦15.4 trillion, which put heavy pressure on foreign reserves and the naira.
In Q2 2025, total exports grew by 10.5% to ₦22.75 trillion, while imports dipped 0.9% to ₦15.29 trillion. This pushed the trade surplus to ₦7.46 trillion, up 44.3% from Q1.
