The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has disclosed that Nigeria’s trade surplus reached $2.2 billion in January 2025, rising by 107.5 percent month-on-month (MoM) from $1.06 billion in December 2024.
The Apex made the disclosure in its Economic Report for January 2025, citing increased value of export and import as the cause of increase in trade surplus.
According to the report, “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.
“Export receipts grew by 29.09 per cent to $5.37 billion, from $4.16 billion in the preceding month, reflecting increase in the export 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.
“Provisional data showed that aggregate receipts from crude oil and gas export increased to $4.80 billion, from $3.62 billion in December 2024.
The increase was on account of the rise both in crude oil prices to US$80.76pb from $74.72pb in the preceding month and domestic crude oil production to 1.54mbpd, from 1.48mbpd in December 2024.
It further stated that, “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.
“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.
“Non-oil export earnings rose to $0.56 billion, from $0.54 billion in the preceding month.
“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 imports, CBN said: “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 disaggregation indicated that the import of non-oil products increased to $2.37 billion, from $2.26 billion in the preceding month.
The increase was driven by growth in the import of raw materials as the industry sector restocked inventory following the festive sales.
“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.”