Nigeria Is Exporting More, But Is It Capturing Enough Value?

As Nigeria’s non-oil exports hit a record $6.1 billion, stakeholders are pushing for a shift from shipping raw commodities to building value-added products, stronger businesses and more jobs at home.

Nigeria is exporting more.

But the bigger question is whether the country is earning enough from what it exports.

That question took centre stage as policymakers, regulators, financial institutions, exporters, manufacturers and development partners gathered for the 10th edition of Zenith Bank’s International Trade Seminar on Non-Oil Export.

Held under the theme “Unlocking Value and Harnessing Growth,” the seminar focused on one of Nigeria’s longstanding economic challenges: how to move beyond exporting raw commodities and build stronger domestic value chains that create jobs, generate foreign exchange and retain more economic value within the country.

The conversation comes at a significant moment.

Nigeria’s non-oil exports reached a record $6.1 billion in 2025, representing an 11.5 per cent increase from the $5.46 billion recorded in 2024. More strikingly, the figure is almost ten times the $612 million recorded a decade ago, showing how much the sector has expanded since Zenith Bank began its annual trade seminar in 2015.

That growth is encouraging.

But higher export earnings do not automatically mean that Nigeria is capturing the full economic opportunity embedded in those exports.

From Exporting Commodities to Exporting Value

For decades, Nigeria’s export economy has been heavily associated with commodities and raw materials.

The challenge is that exporting an unprocessed commodity often means that a significant part of the value chain happens somewhere else.

A country may produce cocoa, sesame, cashew, cotton, agricultural products or minerals, but if those products leave the country largely unprocessed, the higher-value stages of production processing, packaging, manufacturing and branding can take place outside its borders.

That means the country producing the raw material may receive only a fraction of the eventual value of the finished product.

This was at the heart of the discussions at Zenith Bank’s latest trade seminar.

The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Jumoke Oduwole, said the question should no longer be simply how Nigeria can export more, but how it can retain more value from what it exports. She also pointed to opportunities available through the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which provides Nigerian businesses with access to a continental market of more than one billion people.

That distinction is important.

Nigeria does not necessarily need to start by producing entirely new products.

It can begin by asking a different question about products it already produces:

What more can be done with them before they leave the country?

Why Value Addition Matters Beyond Trade

Value addition is often discussed as an export strategy, but its implications go much further.

When agricultural commodities are processed locally, for example, more businesses become part of the value chain.

Farmers can have stronger links with processors. Manufacturers can develop new products. Packaging companies can expand. Logistics providers can serve more businesses. Financial institutions can provide trade and working-capital facilities. Young people can find opportunities across multiple stages of production.

In other words, value addition can turn a single export transaction into an ecosystem of economic activity.

That is where the conversation becomes relevant to sustainability and corporate responsibility.

Economic sustainability is not only about how much money a country makes today. It is also about whether its economic structures can create productive opportunities, decent jobs and resilient businesses over time.

Nigeria’s non-oil export sector already shows signs of this potential.

The sector recorded $6.1 billion in 2025, with non-oil exports showing significant growth compared with a decade earlier.

The next challenge is to ensure that the growth translates into deeper domestic production.

SMEs Cannot Be Left Out

For Nigeria to successfully build value-added export industries, large corporations alone cannot carry the responsibility.

Small and medium-sized businesses will be critical.

Many SMEs already operate within agricultural, manufacturing, logistics, processing and services value chains, but their ability to scale can be constrained by access to finance, infrastructure, market information, regulatory requirements and the cost of reaching international markets.

This is where the financial sector has a role that extends beyond conventional lending.

Banks can help businesses understand trade requirements, access export financing, receive international payments, manage currency risks and connect with regional markets.

Zenith Bank has positioned its trade seminar as part of a decade-long effort to deepen conversations around Nigeria’s non-oil export sector. The bank also highlighted digital trade infrastructure, including its SMARTAfCFTA portal and integration with the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), as tools intended to support businesses participating in cross-border commerce.

For businesses, these systems matter because access to a market is only useful when companies can actually navigate it.

AfCFTA Creates the Market. Businesses Must Build the Capacity.

One of the biggest opportunities discussed at the seminar is the African Continental Free Trade Area.

For Nigerian businesses, AfCFTA potentially provides access to a vast continental market.

But market access alone will not guarantee success.

Nigeria still needs businesses capable of producing goods that meet international standards, compete on price and quality, move efficiently across borders and maintain reliable supply.

That requires investment in production capacity, infrastructure, technology, skills, packaging, logistics and finance.

It also requires collaboration.

The 10th Zenith Bank seminar brought together stakeholders across the public and private sectors, including trade regulators, exporters, manufacturers and development partners. Participants included representatives from the Nigerian Export-Import Bank, Nigeria Customs Service, Nigerian Ports Authority, Central Bank of Nigeria, Nigerian Export Promotion Council and other institutions involved in Nigeria’s trade ecosystem.

The diversity of participants reflects the scale of the challenge.

No single institution can transform Nigeria’s export economy.

The Private Sector’s Responsibility

There is also an important corporate responsibility question here.

When companies organise platforms that bring policymakers, businesses and financial institutions together, the value should go beyond the event itself.

The real measure is what happens afterwards.

Do exporters gain access to new markets?

Do SMEs receive better financing?

Do manufacturers increase their production capacity?

Do more agricultural products get processed locally?

Do Nigerian businesses become more competitive across Africa?

Do more jobs emerge from expanding value chains?

Those are the outcomes that will ultimately determine whether conversations about economic diversification translate into measurable impact.

For Zenith Bank, the seminar has now reached its tenth edition, giving the bank a decade-long platform for advocating around non-oil exports. Its latest edition comes at a time when Nigeria has already achieved record non-oil export earnings.

That makes the next phase even more important.

The country has demonstrated that it can increase the volume and value of non-oil exports.

Now it has to demonstrate that it can capture more of the value created along the way.

Nigeria’s Next Export Story Should Be About What Happens Before the Goods Leave

The $6.1 billion figure is worth celebrating.

But it should also prompt a deeper conversation.

If Nigeria exports more cocoa, what percentage leaves as finished or semi-finished products?

If the country exports agricultural commodities, how many processing businesses are growing around them?

If Nigerian manufacturers gain access to African markets, are they equipped to compete?

And if exports continue to rise, how much of the resulting wealth remains within Nigerian communities?

These questions move the conversation from export volume to economic value.

That shift matters because sustainable economic growth is ultimately about more than earning foreign exchange. It is about building productive systems that allow businesses to grow, workers to earn livelihoods, communities to benefit and the economy to become less vulnerable to shocks.

Nigeria may already be exporting more.

The opportunity now is to ensure that it is also producing more, processing more, earning more and creating more value at home.

That could be the difference between simply becoming a bigger exporter and becoming a stronger, more diversified economy.

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