In three short days, 2025 will become history. If you were to write your 2025 history, what would you write? Put differently, what memories of 2025 will remain dear to you and which will bring out the shivers or apprehension?
As a nation, Nigeria had many defining moments in 2025, with most of those moments not particularly heartwarming for the citizens. We can talk about the reforms that promised much but delivered little. Or the insecurity that filled us with constant dread and disrupted all of our lives. Then there was the pervading poverty that, like bad manners, seemed difficult to shake off. Or the high costs that eroded our purchasing power. Or governance that took the backseat while our leaders played a 2027 political chess game. So much to talk about 2025 as a nation.
Reforms and modest gains
The year was marked by government efforts to stabilise the economy, strengthen monetary and fiscal policies through reforms. These efforts recorded modest gains: the foreign exchange market enjoyed some levels of stability after the wildly volatile scenario witnessed in 2024. The Central Bank of Nigeria instituted reforms in 2025 to unify exchange rates and improve foreign exchange liquidity. The reforms had an impact on foreign portfolio inflows, which reached over a trillion naira in the first three quarters of 2025. That was a growth of over 100% compared to the 2024 figure, an indication of renewed confidence from foreign portfolio investors.
Following the rebasing of the economy, the GDP figure rose higher as the economy grew by over 3% in the year, a slight improvement over the 2024 growth of 2.74%. Per capita income growth, though, remained flat at roughly $2,000 year-on-year.
Crushing poverty
Even with the economic growth, inflation remained a real problem, weighing on real incomes and livelihoods. Poverty due to rising costs and limited economic opportunities defined 2025. Food, housing, transportation, utility, health, and education costs, among others, remained high. The growth figures were mere paper figures and couldn’t fix endemic economic problems such as poor living standards, falling income and purchasing power, high unemployment rate, and poor infrastructure, among other economic maladies. What the government called multidimensional poverty plagued most of the citizenry all through the year because the reported economic growth was non-inclusive.
Investor skepticism
Even with the CBN reforms to ensure forex market liquidity aimed at easing foreign investor concerns, foreign investor skepticism persisted due to economic uncertainties and policy inconsistencies. The gains in foreign portfolio investments made in the larger parts of the year were completely eroded in the last quarter as doubts propelled heavy sell-offs in the capital market and negative sentiment across major stocks. This led to a market capitalisation loss of almost N7 trillion in November. It was the highest recorded loss ever by the stock exchange.
Insecurity and CPC
The wanton loss of lives due to unchecked banditry across the country continued unabated in the year. Kidnapping for ransom payment, which has become a profitable criminal enterprise, took a more dangerous turn as kidnappers became emboldened, attacking and abducting people in fully built-up residential areas in cities like Abuja, Kaduna, and Lagos. It took the intervention of the US government and other Western powers to force the Nigerian government to show a level of seriousness and urgency in tackling insurgency and heinous criminality in the country.
The US government had in the year designated Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC). CPC is a tag used by the United States Department of State for countries believed to be engaging in severe violations of religious freedom. The designation put Nigeria in the same basket as North Korea, Iran, Pakistan, Eritrea, and others. The tag often leads to sanctions and blockade of the economic interests of the country so tagged, including economic aids and foreign direct investments.
Tax reforms
Then the tax reforms that government signed into law in June. The government has found it difficult to explain these new tax laws to the citizens and understandably Nigerians are apprehensive. The new tax laws were then mired in forgery allegations further fueling people’s distrust.
Politicking rather than governance
The year was also defined by full blown campaign for the president’s reelection in 2027. Nigerians were miffed by this politicking. Considering the myriad socio-economic issues plaguing the country, Nigerians were aggrieved that a government with underwhelming achievements has abandoned governance and was rather interested in securing its political future. As part of the positioning for 2027, we saw politicians changing parties like malfunctioning traffic lights, mostly to the ruling political party, the All Progressives Congress: governors, lawmakers, local government chairmen, and so on. Nigeria and its challenges did not however define my 2025. Little wins here and there that led to significant gains ensured I had a positive 2025.
A peep at what defined my 2025
My efforts in building an EdTech business that will help galvanise a generation of young learners took firm roots in 2025 with SparkXplorer. The SparkXplorer platform is an after-school practice and tutoring programme designed to help junior school students achieve A-honour status using US-based curricula supported by On-Demand Tutoring and personalised learning. It is the ultimate after-school learning platform for kids. The SparkXplorer achieved some remarkable growth, with our objective of one thousand sign-ups in six months achieved and surpassed in 2025.
Also in 2025, we achieved a remarkable feat that was borne out of necessity. SparkXplorer was pushed into a tight corner, and could easily have shut down. But the human resilience and a dedicated team of ‘can do’ individuals, including myself, ensured SparkXplorer did not only come out of the corner but scored a knockout (See Businessday of 19 October 2025 for the full story). In three short weeks, the team built Spark Tutor Portal – our own tutoring platform, entirely in-house – and launched Xplorer+, our secure educational browser designed to help scholars stay focused and safe online. What it meant was that SparkXplorer became fully autonomous, no longer reliant on third party vendors to provide the necessary cutting-edge educational services to our scholars.
What is even more noteworthy is the impact SparkXplorer had on scholars in 2025. Many of our scholars achieved seemingly unattainable educational feats. Children who were experiencing difficulties with schooling and studying and were on the verge of giving up on education suddenly fell in love with studying and went on to master skills in science, mathematics, leadership, and many more that they previously considered incomprehensible. Other pupils who suffered from attention deficit became so engrossed with studying on the platform that they sometimes forgot other outdoor activities with their peers. Beyond this, many of our scholars won scholarships to colleges/universities as a result of sterling academic performances.
Personal goals
On a personal level, I equally achieved some heartwarming goals, which defined my 2025. For instance, despite my busy schedule trying to establish an EdTech business, build and market the SparkXplorer platform – I was often on the road – I was still able to maintain this column: that’s 52 unbroken weeks of given you my perspective on everything tech, business, education, cybersecurity, governance, the economy, and many other relevant developments in Nigeria and across the world. There were other personal achievements too that defined my 2025. More on those soon.
How about you? What’s your 2025 joy or regret?
You the reader also gave me joy in the year. I must commend your engagement with me on this page and across my social media handles. I want to know, what defined your 2025? Send me your comments or chat me up on social media @abioafolabi, on Instagram; @AfoKaramson on Facebook. Was it the economy, the widespread insecurity, rising costs of goods and services. Was it your business or career that gave you so much joy? Or was it something personal, your family, new friends, reconnection with old friends/flames? Did you manage to achieve all that you set out to do at the beginning of 2025?
Are there things beyond your control that hampered your goals? With the benefit of hindsight, what would you have done differently in 2025? What were the key lessons learnt in 2025 that should make you more effective or productive in 2026. I imagined you already have your 2026 mapped out in terms of the efforts you hope to exact and the rewards you expect to gain from such efforts?
Compliments of the season, and a wonderful 2026 to look forward to.
