Nigeria recorded about $21 billion in capital importation in the first 10 months of 2025, a sharp rise from the $12 billion posted in 2024 and less than $4 billion in 2023.
The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Jumoke Oduwole, disclosed this on Wednesday while defending the ministry’s 2026 budget proposal before the House of Representatives joint committee on commerce, industry and SMEs.
She explained that the ministry focused in 2025 on translating policy into measurable economic outcomes through stronger coordination, stakeholder engagement and practical investment facilitation.
According to the minister, the rebound was driven by targeted initiatives, including the curation of over $5 billion in bankable projects, sector-specific deal rooms and Nigeria’s inaugural domestic investors’ summit, which helped resolve about 50 investor bottlenecks.
Oduwole added that the ministry undertook more than 100 bilateral investment engagements with countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Brazil and Japan, as well as long-standing partners including the United States and the United Kingdom.
She noted that the Nigeria-UK economic and trade partnership, which commenced in the second quarter of 2024, significantly boosted inflows, with UK investors accounting for about 65 per cent of foreign capital inflows in 2025.
On trade performance, the minister said Nigeria recorded total trade valued at approximately N113 trillion in the first three quarters of 2025 and achieved a trade surplus during the period.
Exports, she said, grew by about 11 per cent year-on-year to roughly $6.1 billion — the highest ever recorded in both value and volume — as the ministry targets deeper industrialisation and stronger non-oil exports in 2026.