Nigeria’s $6.1 Billion Export Story is Bigger than the Number
By Kabir Abdulsalam
A record export figure is easy to celebrate. Understanding what produces it is harder.
Nigeria’s non‑oil exports reached $6.1 billion in 2025, an 11.5 per cent rise from the previous year’s $5.46 billion. The country also shipped 8.02 million metric tonnes of non‑oil goods to 120 countries. These numbers matter. But they tell only a fraction of the story.
Behind every dollar earned from non‑oil exports lies a long, mostly invisible chain of activity. A farmer must meet production standards. An exporter must navigate documentation and international regulations. Products require certification, packaging and quality assurance. Buyers must be identified, negotiations concluded, logistics arranged. Long before a container leaves Apapa or Onne, an entire ecosystem must function.
That ecosystem—quiet, technical and often overlooked—is becoming the real engine of Nigeria’s export growth.
Beyond the Headline Number
When I first saw the $6.1 billion figure in a newspaper, my curiosity went beyond the headline. What exactly is driving this growth? What happens before a Nigerian product reaches an international shelf? And what does this say about the country’s emerging export architecture?
A closer look reveals that the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), under its current leadership, is reshaping the foundations of export development. Rather than limiting itself to traditional trade promotion, the Council is building the infrastructure that makes exporting possible: strengthening production, improving product quality, expanding certification, developing exporter capacity, connecting businesses to buyers and addressing long‑standing data gaps.
One of the least visible—but most consequential—drivers of export growth is knowledge.
A business may have a good product and still fail to export because it does not understand documentation, pricing, logistics, quality requirements or buyer expectations. NEPC reports that from 2023 to date, it has organised 1,983 capacity‑building programmes involving 215,156 participants nationwide. In 2025 alone, 728 programmes reached 96,221 participants.
This is not training for its own sake. It is the deliberate creation of exporters.
The Council’s Export Mentorship Programme reinforces this approach. Five experienced exporters mentored 20 prospective exporters in its pilot phase, with 15 completing the programme. Exporting, after all, is not learned solely in a classroom; it requires exposure to the practical realities of cross‑border business.
Certification: The Gatekeeper of Global Markets
Production alone does not guarantee export success. International markets operate with strict standards that determine whether a product is accepted, rejected or allowed into premium segments.
Through its “Go Global, Go Certification” initiative, NEPC says 305 exporters have obtained international certifications—FDA, HACCP, Halal and others—while 567 more are undergoing certification. The Council is also coordinating the STDF‑845 project, a three‑year effort to reduce border rejection of Nigerian sesame and cowpea due to pesticide residues and Salmonella contamination.
This is not glamorous work. But it is essential. The question is no longer whether Nigeria can produce enough; it is whether Nigeria can produce consistently to global standards.
A Glimpse into the Export Chain: The Kebbi Sesame Cluster
Perhaps the clearest example of Nigeria’s emerging export infrastructure is the sesame cluster in Kebbi State.
In partnership with the Kebbi State Government and the Federation of Commodity Associations of Nigeria, NEPC established a pilot cluster on 500 hectares in Tsamiya, Bagudo LGA. 152 farmers were organised into cooperatives and supported with improved seeds, tractors, organic inputs and market access.
The crucial step came after harvest: NEPC linked the sesame to Starlink, a major commodities exporter, for off‑take and onward shipment to Turkey.
This is the export chain in practice—organising farmers, improving production, aggregating commodities, connecting them to exporters and linking them to international markets. It is a model the Council intends to replicate across other commodities.
NEPC has also distributed 4,633 hybrid seedlings for cocoa, oil palm, groundnut and coffee interventions. The message is clear: export promotion begins at the farm, not at the port.
Finding Buyers: The Other Half of Export Success
A good product without a buyer is not an export. NEPC has therefore intensified trade missions, B2B engagements and international fairs to connect Nigerian companies with foreign markets.
During a 2025 engagement in Saudi Arabia, trade agreements with distributors projected $500 million in potential export revenue. At the 2025 Intra‑African Trade Fair in Algiers, NEPC—working with BOI, NEXIM and SMEDAN—supported 75 Nigerian SMEs. The Nigerian pavilion won Best Pavilion for Transacting Business, while prospective export orders reached $110 million.
These are projected figures, not realised earnings. But they show that market access is now treated as a measurable component of export development.
The digital space is not left behind. Through its partnership with Jumia, 70 Nigerian SMEs have been onboarded to expand their digital visibility and reach.
Broadening Participation: Women, Youth and MSMEs
Export growth cannot be sustained if it remains dominated by a small group of established companies. NEPC’s growing emphasis on women, youth and MSMEs reflects this reality.
The Council’s selection as the only African business support organisation under the WTO‑ITC Women Exporters in the Digital Economy (WEIDE) Fund mobilised 68,000 applications from Nigerian women‑led businesses, with 146 selected for the first phase of grant support.
The programme combines financing with digital skills, coaching, competitiveness, certification, e‑commerce and market access—creating not just empowered entrepreneurs, but potential exporters.
Similarly, NEPC’s Export Skills Acquisition Centre in Lagos is being repositioned to train 1,000 young people and women annually in garment and bag production for domestic and international markets.
The Exports that Don’t Show Up in the Numbers
Nigeria’s export story has another layer: informal cross‑border trade.
NEPC has identified 42 border markets and 44 major loading points through which agricultural, mineral and manufactured products move informally to neighbouring countries. The Council is working with the National Bureau of Statistics to improve data collection and with the Central Bank of Nigeria on payment arrangements involving CFA currencies.
Better data matters. Policy cannot respond effectively to an export economy that is only partially visible.
The Real Story Beneath $6.1 Billion
Nigeria’s $6.1 billion non‑oil export performance is a milestone. But the more consequential story is what is being built underneath that number.
Capacity building creates exporters. Certification makes products marketable. Production clusters strengthen supply. Trade missions create buyer connections. Digital platforms widen access. Women and youth programmes expand participation. Data initiatives illuminate previously hidden trade.
Under Nonye Ayeni, NEPC’s role is increasingly defined by how these pieces connect.
The real test is no longer whether Nigeria can record a $6.1 billion export year. It is whether the country can build an export system capable of making such growth repeatable—and ensuring that more Nigerian farmers, businesses and manufacturers become permanent participants in the global marketplace.
Kabir Abdulsalam writes from Suleja, Niger State. He can be reached at: [email protected]