The Central Bank of Nigeria has revealed that Nigeria recorded a significant rise in trade surplus in January 2025, reaching $2.2 billion, a 107.5 percent jumped from the $1.06 billion recorded in December 2024.
This update was contained in the apex bank’s Monthly Economic Report for January, attributing the boost in surplus to simultaneous growth in exports and imports.
“Trade activities in the review period resulted in a higher trade surplus. Provisional data indicated that the trade surplus rose to $2.2 billion, from $1.06 billion in December 2024,” the report stated.
Export revenues surged by 29.09 percent to $5.37 billion in January, compared to $4.16 billion in the previous month.
This growth was largely attributed to the improved export performance of both oil and non-oil products.
“Earnings from the export of crude oil and gas increased in January 2025, driven by increases in both crude oil price and domestic production,” the report said.
Provisional figures indicated that receipts from crude oil and gas exports climbed to $4.80 billion, up from $3.62 billion in December.
The improvement was attributed to the rise in crude oil prices from $74.72 per barrel to $80.76, alongside a boost in production levels from 1.48 million barrels per day (mbpd) to 1.54mbpd.
“A disaggregation indicated that crude oil export receipts rose to $3.86 billion, from $2.68 billion. Gas export earnings also increased to $0.95 billion, from $0.94 billion in December 2024,” the CBN disclosed.
In the non-oil sector, export earnings edged up to $0.56 billion in January from $0.54 billion in the preceding month. The apex bank linked this improvement to government-driven initiatives.
“Non-oil export earnings increased in January 2025, majorly resulting from higher receipts from the export of agricultural commodities, as government initiatives continued to yield positive outturns.
The development was on account of the positive effects of government initiatives such as Export 35 redefined and the Go Global, Go for Certification,” said the apex bank.
On the import side, the CBN noted a 2.26 percent increase in total import bills, which rose to $3.17 billion from $3.10 billion in December, mainly due to higher imports of non-oil products, especially raw materials for industrial use.
“Merchandise import bills increased due to growth in the import of non-oil products, particularly raw materials for the industrial sector. Provisional data showed that total imports rose by 2.26 per cent to $3.17 billion, from $3.10 billion in December 2024.
A breakdown showed an increase in non-oil product imports to $2.37 billion from $2.26 billion in the previous month, driven by industry restocking efforts after the festive season.
“On the contrary, import of petroleum products decreased by 3.61 per cent to $0.8 billion from $0.83 billion in the preceding month,” the report added.
