For the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment (FMITI), the year 2025 marked a defining phase in Nigeria’s economic repositioning under the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
FMITI said the year 2025 remains remarkable when it comes to delivering critical reforms and results that deepened industrial capacity, expanded exports, and restored investor confidence.
Guided by the national vision, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment noted it executed a coordinated reform programme across investment attraction, trade expansion, export diversification, and institutional strengthening.
“Progress recorded in 2025 reflects strong collaboration across government agencies, the private sector, and development partners, translating policy intent into tangible and measurable economic outcomes,” FMITI noted while reviewing year 2025 as a defining year and expecting 2026 as one to build on the momentum.
The programmes of Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment in the review year 2025 marked a decisive inflection point for Nigeria by restoring investor confidence, strengthening competitiveness, expanding exports, and laying the foundation for sustained and inclusive growth.
Export-led growth, diversification and inclusion…
Nigeria recorded strong progress in export-led growth and diversification in 2025. Non-oil exports grew by 21 percent, reaching $12.8 billion in H1 2025, nearly double the $6.5 billion target and contributing to a N12 trillion trade surplus during the same period. Overall trade value expanded by 14 percent, with further gains expected as trade facilitation reforms and logistics infrastructure continue to mature.
This performance reflects the cumulative impact of targeted trade reforms, improved export processes, and increased value addition across key sectors. Nigeria’s leading non-oil export commodities include cocoa and cocoa derivatives (butter and powder), sesame seeds, cashew nuts, shea butter, ginger, hibiscus flower, rubber, palm oil derivatives, fertilisers, cement and clinker, and liquefied natural gas (LNG).
In partnership with the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), FMITI strengthened national export capacity by training 27,352 exporters, certifying 200 MSMEs for international trade, and supporting 3,047 farmers through the distribution of hybrid seedlings. This also advanced inclusive trade through the Women Export Fund, which attracted over 67,000 applications and awarded grants to 146 women-led enterprises.
Nigeria’s Special Economic Zones generated over $500 million in export revenues and created more than 20,000 direct jobs, reinforcing their role as engines of export-led growth, industrialisation, and employment generation through the Nigerian Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA) and the Oil and Gas Free Zones Authority (OGFZA).
In food systems and traceability, FMITI has revitalised the Nigeria Commodity Exchange and launched the National Trade and Distribution Company with Afreximbank to support value-chain development and the traceable, structured trade of agricultural and mineral commodities.
In November 2025, Nigeria launched its Talent Accelerator Network, a part of the Global Network of Accelerators at the World Economic Forum, with four Co-Chairs providing leadership – two Private sector Co-Chairs (CEOs of Africa Finance Corporation and Flour Mills of Nigeria) and two Public Sector Co-Chairs (Honourable Ministers of Industry, Trade & Investment and Education) respectively. The Accelerator is focused on providing a Coordinated Action Plan to equip the local industry with the required skills and enable the digital export of excess capacity.
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Investment attraction and capital mobilisation…
Under the leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the FMITI has recorded a decisive turnaround in investment attraction, responding strategically, rather than reactively, to global economic headwinds and clearly signalling that Nigeria is open for business.
In 2025, Nigeria significantly strengthened its investment facilitation architecture, transitioning from passive promotion to an active, systems-driven model that reduces information asymmetries, improves project visibility, and enhances the bankability of investment pipelines. As a result, four priority projects valued at $13.7 billion have progressed, representing a conversion rate of over 25 percent from the $50.8 billion in signed Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs).
Through structured deal origination, FMITI has proactively built a de-risked pipeline exceeding $5 billion across priority sectors. This execution-driven approach integrates narrative shaping, deal origination, curated deal rooms, and targeted roadshows, supporting investors from first engagement to firm commitment and converting opportunities into bankable projects.
Investor confidence was further reinforced in June 2025 when President Tinubu hosted several West African Presidents at the West Africa Economic Summit, where the Deal Room generated over $400 million in originated and showcased vetted investment deals, signalling renewed regional and global confidence in Nigeria’s economy.
Through proactive international investment promotion and high-level bilateral engagements with and missions to key economies including the United Kingdom, United States, France, South Africa, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Japan, Switzerland, China, Poland, Turkey, Brazil, Barbados, Algeria and Colombia the Honourable Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment has deepened investment pipelines, reshaped investor perceptions, and strengthened Nigeria’s relevance and influence within global investment circles.
These engagements have delivered tangible gains, enhancing investor confidence, improving deal flow quality, and positioning Nigeria as a credible, reform-driven destination for long-term capital.
Investment retention and domestic capital…
In parallel with global investment promotion, the Federal Government is advancing deep investment-climate reforms to improve predictability, coordination, and investor confidence.
Complementing these reforms, the Ministry has rolled out a domestic investment retention and expansion strategy anchored on Nigerian capital, recognising that domestic investors are the first and most enduring vote of confidence in the economy.
Central to this approach was the hosting of Nigeria’s first-ever Domestic Investors Summit (DIS), a platform designed to reposition domestic investors not merely as beneficiaries of reform, but as co-architects of policy execution. The Summit moved beyond dialogue to action, introducing a live regulatory sandbox that enabled real-time issue triaging and resolution, strengthened feedback loops between investors and regulators, and translated macroeconomic reforms into firm-level outcomes. 75 percent of investor issues raised at the summit were resolved on the spot, and 100 percent were closed within 5 working days post-summit. This marked a structural shift from ad-hoc engagements to a repeatable execution model for resolving investment bottlenecks and accelerating reinvestment decisions.
Jumoke Oduwole, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment also led direct engagements and company visits across the country, supporting manufacturing, agro-processing, electric vehicles (EVs), and industrial clusters to resolve bottlenecks and to demonstrate that this administration is a listening government that partners with the private sector.
The Ministry continues sustained engagement through a structured, concierge-style support framework with Platinum Business Champions (PBCs), Nigeria’s top 23 companies generating over $1 billion annually, supporting expansion, export growth, and domestic reinvestment. Collectively, Nigerian firms remain the strongest proof point of confidence in the economy, anchoring job creation, diversification, and the crowd-in of long-term foreign investment.
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Intellectual property – digital, innovation and creative economy…
The Federal Executive Council approved the National Intellectual Property Policy and Strategy (NIPPS), Nigeria’s first unified framework for protecting and commercialising intellectual property. Led jointly by the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment and the Ministry of Justice, with support from the Ministry of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy and other relevant innovation-related ministries, NIPPS transforms intellectual property into a bankable economic asset, strengthening creative value chains, expanding access to finance, and positioning Nigeria as a regional hub for creativity-driven investment and cultural exports.
Collectively, these reforms underscore the Federal Government’s commitment to a credible, competitive, and investor-friendly economy. Nigeria remains open for business, focused on sustaining investments that create jobs, build industries, and drive shared prosperity.
Macroeconomic reforms restoring investor confidence…
The Ministry’s investment drive was anchored in bold macroeconomic and structural reforms, including foreign exchange liberalisation, the removal of fuel subsidies, monetary tightening, modernised investment policies, and stronger investor aftercare. In 2025, NGX ranked 5th among the world’s top-performing stock exchanges and 4th in Africa. As a result, combined foreign portfolio investment and foreign direct investment reached nearly $14 billion in Q1–Q3 2025, surpassing total inflows in 2024. FPI led the recovery, rising to $12.99 billion, while FDI is showing promising, robust growth from a historically low base, increasing 700 percent quarter-on-quarter in Q3 2025 and reaching $936 million year-to-date, signalling renewed investor confidence in Nigeria’s reform trajectory.
AfCFTA leadership and continental integration …
FMITI advanced the operationalisation of the African Continental Free Trade Area, reinforcing Nigeria’s leadership in shaping Africa’s integrated trade future under the leadership of Jumoke Oduwole.
Nigeria hosted the Secretary General of the AfCFTA Secretariat alongside 30 Nigerian digital operators, advancing collaboration on digital trade and services exports. Nigeria was subsequently appointed Co-Champion of the AfCFTA Protocol on Digital Trade, alongside Kenya and South Africa, by the African Union Assembly of Heads of State and Government. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, received commendation from the Assembly for advancing digital trade across Africa.
To strengthen coordination and execution, FMITI inaugurated the AfCFTA Central Coordination Committee, which brings together over 20 public and private sector institutions. Nigeria gazetted its Provisional Schedule of Tariff Concessions, enabling Nigerian businesses to trade duty-free on 90 per cent of goods across Africa, and became the first AfCFTA State Party to publish its five-year implementation review, ensuring evidence-based and accountable implementation.
Concrete actions delivered to accelerate exports and competitiveness included: The first-ever national mapping of digital services, identifying over 200 firms across 17 sectors; launch of a dedicated Exports Air Cargo Corridor to East and Southern Africa in partnership with Uganda Airlines and the United Nations Development Programme, achieving 50–75percent reductions in logistics costs; hosting of the AfCFTA Digital Trade Market Access Roundtable in Lagos with regulators from Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, and South Africa. The engagement provided direct insight into market entry rules, licensing requirements, and regulatory processes across these priority markets; and publication of a Market Intelligence Tool covering cosmetics, agro-processed products, and textiles across thirteen African markets
These interventions have expanded access for manufactured and agricultural exports and promoted the competitiveness of Nigerian goods and SME’s across regional markets.
Nigeria also secured hosting rights for major continental platforms, including the AfCFTA Digital Forum, Creative Africa Nexus 2026, the AfCFTA Council of Ministers Meeting 2026, the Intra-African Trade Fair 2027 and Investopia. These platforms bring investment and global partners into Nigeria, opening new markets and financing opportunities for businesses, creatives, exporters, and MSMEs. Hosting catalytic events creates jobs, boosts local enterprise visibility, and positions Nigeria as a leading hub for trade and innovation in Africa.
Trade engagement and market access …
FMITI strengthened and modernised Nigeria’s global trade architecture through Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs) and strategic bilateral engagements. Through strategic agreements, reducing trade barriers and improving market access.
These efforts are driving export growth, investment, job creation, and competitiveness. Nigeria signed an MOU with the United States Commercial and Investment Partnership (CIP) and activated the UK–Nigeria Enhanced Trade and Investment Partnership (ETIP). UK investors now account for approximately 65percent of recent inflows, including $7.5 million into Babban Gona and $40.5 million into Johnvent Industries.
Bilateral trade modernisation discussions were also advanced with Benin and Colombia, the Brazil–Nigeria Strategic Dialogue Mechanism was reactivated, and engagements deepened with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, focusing on energy, infrastructure, logistics, and supply-chain resilience.
At the regional level, Nigeria successfully hosted the ECOWAS Ministers of Trade and Investment Meeting, strengthening policy coordination across West Africa. This alignment is critical for building regional value chains and accelerating intra-ECOWAS trade.
Globally, Nigeria recorded significant milestones in trade policy reform, legal modernisation, and continental integration, as highlighted during Nigeria’s 6th Trade Policy Review at the World Trade Organisation. The review underscored the Federal Government’s commitment to a modern, inclusive, and future-ready trade and investment framework aligned with global best practice and Africa’s integration agenda. As part of this process, FMITI developed a Trade Policy Review Work Programme to comprehensively overhaul Nigeria’s trade policies and practices.
Looking ahead in 2026…
Building on this momentum, in 2026, FMITI is transitioning from inflection to transformation pathways, with a strong and sustained focus on execution and empirically verifiable impact to support domestic businesses to produce more and accelerate exports, as we welcome and actively host targeted foreign investors on Nigerian soil.
FMITI said it will continue to drive investment attraction and retention through the rollout of investor playbooks in four priority sectors, including: solid minerals industrial value chains and trade infrastructure investment; digital trade and investment; the creative economy; and climate-smart investment and green industrialization.
Furthermore, FMITI’s investor transformation agenda is being reinforced by strengthening investor facilitation at NIPC’s one-stop shop investor desk, customised digital investment portals and enhanced coordination across key ministries, departments, and agencies, with a whole-of-government approach to effectively achieve project delivery.
The newly released National Industrial Policy will be effectively operationalised nationwide, translating strategy into measurable industrial outcomes.
Importantly, the Ministry’s AfCFTA Roadshow and Export Facilitation Programme, targeted at every Ward across the country, will drive coordinated export facilitation in collaboration with relevant FMITI agencies, including NEPC, SMEDAN, BOI, and NEXIM.
Execution will be advanced through targeted stakeholder engagements across all six geopolitical zones, convening domestic and foreign businesses and investors around priority value chains aligned with Nigeria’s industrial and trade ambitions under the AfCFTA framework.
Taken together, these efforts underscore FMITI’s commitment to building a more predictable business environment, unlocking long-term investment, accelerating job creation, and delivering shared prosperity for Nigerians everywhere. Unlocking the environment for long-term investment, accelerating job creation, and delivering shared prosperity for Nigerians.
