National Orientation Agency Identify non oil exports as new primary source of foreign exchange

The National Orientation Agency (NOA) has identified non oil exports as Nigeria’s new primary source of foreign exchange (FX), largely due to the underwhelming performance of the oil and gas sector over the last decade.

This view was expressed in the agency’s weekly publication, The Explainer.

Supporting this perspective, the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) reported that non oil exports were valued at $3.22 billion in the first half of 2025.

Additionally, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed that Nigeria had a positive trade balance of N5.17 trillion in the first quarter of 2025, indicating that the value of exports surpassed that of imports.

The NOA disclosed that the data indicate a turnaround in the non oil export sector, signalling improved earnings from the sector.

The agency said, “Given the recent data from the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) and the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the non-oil export sector seems to have been well positioned as Nigeria’s new source of foreign exchange (FX).

“This is more so that earnings from the oil and gas sector in the past decade have not been impressive.

“Crude oil, which has served as Nigeria’s economic mainstay for decades, generated only $3.47 billion in the first half of 2025.

“In contrast, non oil exports long regarded as insignificant due to their low earnings recorded an impressive $3.225 billion within the same period, nearly matching crude oil revenues.”

According to the NOA, this indicates that non oil export earnings almost surpassed crude oil accruals in H1 2025 an unprecedented development in decades.

The agency added that, similar to the impact of ongoing tax reforms which have significantly boosted government revenue beyond oil earnings, this milestone represents one of the remarkable achievements of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration in reducing Nigeria’s overdependence on crude oil as the backbone of the economy.

It noted, “Breakdown of non-oil export receipts in H1 2025, according to figures obtained from NEPC, showed that the accruals of $3.225 billion during the period was realised from 4.040 million metric tonnes of varying products mainly from agriculture and manufacturing.”

NOA said this represents a 19.59 percent increase from the $2.69 billion earned from 3.83 million metric tonnes in the corresponding period of 2024.