President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has revealed that the country’s manufacturing exports recorded a 173 percent increase since his administration took office on May 29, 2023.
Gatekeepers News reports that speaking during his nationwide broadcast on Wednesday, October 1, to mark the country’s 65th Independence anniversary, Tinubu said Nigeria is now experiencing a trade turnaround, with five straight quarters of surplus recorded.
He said, “We are now selling more to the world than we are buying, a fundamental shift that strengthens our currency and creates jobs at home. Nigeria’s trade surplus increased by 44.3% in Q2 2025 to ₦7.46 trillion ($4.74 billion), the largest in about three years.”
According to the president, manufactured exports have surged, and non-oil exports now account for nearly half of the country’s foreign trade.
He added, “Goods manufactured in Nigeria and exported jumped by 173%. Non-oil exports, as a component of our export trade, now represent 48 per cent, compared to oil exports, which account for 52 per cent.”
Figures from the latest foreign trade report confirmed that between Q1 and Q2 of 2025, manufactured exports grew from ₦294 billion to ₦803.8 billion, a 173 percent quarter-on-quarter rise. Year-on-year, the increase stood at 67.2 percent, reflecting steady diversification away from oil dependency.
The report noted that manufactured goods traded in Q2 2025 reached ₦8.7 trillion, representing 22.8 percent of the country’s overall trade. The biggest manufactured export during the period was Lightvessels, fire-floats, floating cranes and other vessels, worth ₦212.04 billion to the Netherlands and ₦24.1 billion to France.
Other major exports included floating or submersible drilling or production platformsvalued at ₦90.43 billion to Equatorial Guinea, as well as Unwrought aluminum alloys sent to Japan and India, worth ₦55.71 billion and ₦7.62 billion respectively.
Geographically, the report said Europe was the largest destination for Nigeria’s manufactured goods with ₦357.70 billion, followed by Africa with ₦254.07 billion, and Asia with ₦168.53 billion.
According to Tinubu, these figures demonstrate that Nigeria’s economy is diversifying its foreign exchange earnings base while strengthening the local currency and boosting industrial growth.
