Nigeria’s trade relations within Africa underwent a major shake-up in the second quarter of 2025, with Togo outpacing South Africa to become the country’s top African trading partner.
This is according to the latest Foreign Trade in Goods Statistics report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The figures from the NBS show Togo’s rise in both exports and imports, highlighting the West African nation’s growing importance as a trade hub in the region.
In Q1 2025, Togo ranked fourth among Nigeria’s African export destinations with N134.8 billion in trade, all of it made up of non-crude oil goods.
By Q2, its position changed as exports to Togo surged to N811.97 billion, representing 27.4% of Nigeria’s total exports to Africa. Of this, N113.3 billion came from crude oil while N698.7 billion was from non-crude oil products.
This six-fold jump in trade volume signals Nigeria’s growing reliance on Togo’s re-export and logistics capacity. With the port of Lomé serving as one of West Africa’s busiest transshipment hubs, a significant share of Nigerian exports to Togo may be destined for redistribution across francophone West Africa.
On the import side, Togo also dominated in Q2, supplying Nigeria with goods worth N211.99 billion, representing 25.8% of total imports from Africa. This cemented Togo’s role as Nigeria’s largest African trade partner overall, not only on the export front but also as the top import origin.
Ivory Coast maintained its third-place position in both quarters, although its trade volume fell slightly from N428.56 billion in Q1 to N408.97 billion in Q2. Crude oil continued to dominate, accounting for N354.1 billion of the Q2 figure.
On the import side, Togo’s leap to first place in Q2 replaced Angola, which was Nigeria’s largest African import source in Q1 at N224.39 billion but dropped out of the top 10 entirely by Q2.
Equatorial Guinea emerged as a new entrant in Q2, supplying N97.93 billion worth of goods, enough to secure fourth place.
Other traditional suppliers like Egypt, Morocco, and Tanzania remained in the rankings but saw shifts in their relative positions. Ghana also entered the top 10 as a new import source in Q2, contributing N24.66 billion, or 3% of Nigeria’s imports from Africa.
Nigeria recorded an upswing in its external trade position in the second quarter of 2025, as the country’s trade surplus widened by 44.3% to N7.46 trillion, up from N5.17 trillion in the previous quarter.
Nigeria’s total exports stood at N22.75 trillion in Q2, a 10.5% increase from Q1 and 28.4% higher than the same period in 2024. Imports, by contrast, slipped marginally by 0.9% quarter-on-quarter to N15.29 trillion.
This dynamic created the wider surplus that has boosted Nigeria’s external account.