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, Jumoke Oduwole, disclosed this on Tuesday.

Ms Oduwole also said that the government was focusing on attracting more long-term productive foreign investment while sustaining reforms to strengthen investors’ confidence.

She said that Nigeria recorded $2 billion in foreign direct investment between 2023 and 2025.

“The figure is based on the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) capital-importation series, with the FDI component isolated. Nigeria recorded about $377 million in 2023, $675 million in 2024 and $923 million in 2025,” she said.

According to her, recorded FDI more than doubled between 2023 and 2025 and increased by about 37 per cent between 2024 and 2025.

The minister cautioned against confusing FDI with total capital importation, adding that Nigeria received $23.22 billion in total foreign capital inflows in 2025. She further said that $19.74 billion of the inflows were portfolio investments, while FDI accounted for $923 million.

According to her, portfolio investment and long-term productive FDI have different implications for industrial capacity and employment.

Ms Oduwole said publicly available NBS sector rankings reflected total capital importation rather than FDI-specific allocations.

She said banking and financial services received the largest recent shares of total capital importation.

She said 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 said that available evidence suggested investors’ confidence was improving, although efforts were continuing to attract more long-term productive investment.

She said total capital inflows rose from $12.32 billion in 2024 to $23.22 billion in 2025.

“Recorded FDI increased from about $675 million in 2024 to $923 million in 2025. Total capital importation reached 10.37 billion dollars in the first quarter of 2026, representing an 83.83 per cent increase over the corresponding period of 2025,” she said.

Ms Oduwole said the figures reflected positive responses to reforms, improved foreign exchange market transparency and trade-facilitation measures. She said the first phase of the national single window was launched in March 2026 to streamline import and export processes.

The trade minister noted that portfolio investment accounted for about 85 per cent of total capital inflows in 2025. She said the ministry would continue promoting policy consistency, faster approvals, investment retention and stronger industrial capacity.

On economic diversification, Ms Oduwole said that Nigeria’s non-oil exports reached a record of $6.1 billion in 2025.

“The figure represented an 11.5 per cent increase from $5.46 billion recorded in 2024. Export volume increased from 7.29 million metric tonnes to 8.02 million metric tonnes, representing a 10 per cent increase. Nigeria exported 281 different non-oil products in 2025,” she said.

The minister identified cocoa and its derivatives, urea, cashew nuts, sesame and gold doré among the 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.

Ms Oduwole said the focus would be on increasing value-added products, processed agricultural goods, manufactured products, services and digital exports. According to her, the strategy also includes expanding production capacity, improving standards, developing export clusters and reducing logistics costs.

Ms Oduwole said the government would build on the $6.1 billion non-oil export record while promoting greater value addition and market expansion. She said the government would continue to focus on value addition and market expansion as part of its economic diversification agenda.

(NAN)