Nigeria’s petrol import invoice fell sharply within the first quarter of 2025, dropping to N1.76 trillion from N3.81 trillion recorded within the corresponding interval of 2024.
This represents a 54% year-on-year decline, based on the newest international commerce statistics report from the Nationwide Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The drop additionally marks a 47% discount from This autumn 2024, when the nation spent N3.3 trillion on petrol imports.
The decline is essentially attributed to elevated home provide from the Dangote Refinery, which has continued to scale up operations.
Import pattern reverses after years of regular progress
- A five-year evaluation of first-quarter petrol import figures reveals that Nigeria had been on a gentle upward trajectory till 2024. The nation imported N732 billion value of petrol in Q1 2020, rising to N1.29 trillion in Q1 2021, and doubling once more to N2.69 trillion in Q1 2022. There was a average decline to N2.03 trillion in Q1 2023 earlier than the worth surged to an all-time excessive of N3.81 trillion in Q1 2024.
- With the Q1 2025 import invoice dropping to N1.76 trillion, Nigeria’s petrol import worth has now returned to pre-2022 ranges, suggesting that home refining is starting to displace international provide in a significant manner.
- The NBS knowledge alerts a structural shift in Nigeria’s petroleum commerce, following many years of dependence on imported refined merchandise because of the collapse of state-owned refineries.
Petrol accounts for 44.51% of Nigeria’s imports from the ECOWAS area
The report additional reveals that petrol was Nigeria’s most imported product from ECOWAS nations within the first quarter of 2025, accounting for N89.18 billion or 44.51% of whole imports from the subregion.
- The determine highlights the continued significance of regional commerce routes in assembly home gasoline demand, regardless of Nigeria’s ongoing efforts to spice up native refining by amenities such because the Dangote Refinery.
- Throughout the broader West African area, petrol imports made up 41.86% of Nigeria’s commerce influx, whereas it contributed 11.63% of whole imports from your entire African continent.
- This dominance by petrol reveals the lingering provide gaps in Nigeria’s downstream petroleum sector.
- Whereas native refining is gaining momentum, it has but to totally exchange the necessity for imported refined merchandise.
- Different main imports from the ECOWAS area through the interval included gasoline oil at N23.15 billion (11.55%) and petroleum bitumen at N20.58 billion (10.27%), indicating that petroleum-based merchandise proceed to form Nigeria’s import profile from the subregion.
Petrol was additionally listed among the many high 5 most imported commodities nationwide in Q1 2025, alongside gasoline oil, crude petroleum oils, cane sugar for refineries, and durum wheat.
What you need to know
The decline in petrol imports aligns with the rising affect of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery. With an put in capability of 650,000 barrels per day, the refinery is already supplying a good portion of Nigeria’s petrol demand, though it’s nonetheless working under full capability.
- The refinery, which is at present producing about 85 per cent of its 650,000 barrels per day capability, has helped to cut back the amount of imported refined petrol considerably.
- This has launched better competitors within the downstream market, with retail costs in Lagos dropping to as little as N860 per litre in early 2025.
- Nonetheless, the refinery’s operations have confronted early challenges. In March 2025, Dangote Industries halted native foreign money gross sales attributable to international alternate constraints, because it depends on dollar-denominated crude inputs however receives naira in return for native gross sales.
Nonetheless, the federal government has intervened to resolve the problems across the naira-for-crude deal. The ability continues to play a key position in narrowing the import hole.
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