Abuja: The Federal Government says it will sustain growth in non-oil exports by promoting value addition, expanding markets and improving export competitiveness. The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Jumoke Oduwole, made this known during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday.
According to News Agency of Nigeria, Oduwole also said that the government was focusing on attracting more long-term productive foreign investment while sustaining reforms to strengthen investors’ confidence. She revealed that Nigeria recorded two billion dollars in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) between 2023 and 2025, based on the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) capital-importation series, with the FDI component isolated. The figures show Nigeria recorded about 377 million dollars in 2023, 675 million dollars in 2024, and 923 million dollars in 2025.
The minister cautioned against confusing FDI with total capital importation, adding that Nigeria received 23.22 billion dollars in total foreign capital inflows in 2025. She further explained that 19.74 billion dollars of these inflows were portfolio investments, while FDI accounted for 923 million dollars. Oduwole emphasized that portfolio investment and long-term productive FDI have different implications for industrial capacity and employment.
Oduwole noted that publicly available NBS sector rankings reflected total capital importation rather than FDI-specific allocations, with banking and financial services receiving the largest recent shares of total capital importation. She mentioned that an FDI-specific sector ranking would require reconciled transaction-level data from the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC), NBS, and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The minister stated that available evidence suggested improving investor confidence, although efforts were continuing to attract more long-term productive investment. Total capital inflows rose from 12.32 billion dollars in 2024 to 23.22 billion dollars in 2025, with recorded FDI increasing from about 675 million dollars in 2024 to 923 million dollars in 2025. Total capital importation reached 10.37 billion dollars in the first quarter of 2026, representing an 83.83 percent increase over the corresponding period of 2025.
Oduwole said the figures reflected positive responses to reforms, improved foreign exchange market transparency, and trade-facilitation measures. The first phase of the National Single Window was launched in March 2026 to streamline import and export processes. Portfolio investment accounted for about 85 percent of total capital inflows in 2025.
She added that the ministry would continue promoting policy consistency, faster approvals, investment retention, and stronger industrial capacity. On economic diversification, Oduwole said that Nigeria’s non-oil exports reached a record of 6.1 billion dollars in 2025, representing an 11.5 percent increase from the 5.46 billion dollars recorded in 2024. Export volume increased from 7.29 million metric tons to 8.02 million metric tons, representing a 10 percent increase. In 2025, Nigeria exported 281 different non-oil products.
The minister identified cocoa and its derivatives, urea, cashew nuts, sesame, and gold dore as leading non-oil export earners. She said the ministry would sustain growth in the value and volume of non-oil exports over the next three years, focusing on increasing value-added products, processed agricultural goods, manufactured products, services, and digital exports. The strategy also includes expanding production capacity, improving standards, developing export clusters, and reducing logistics costs.
Oduwole concluded by stating that the government would build on the 6.1 billion dollars non-oil export record while promoting greater value addition and market expansion. She reiterated to NAN that the government would continue to focus on value addition and market expansion as part of its economic diversification agenda.