Nigeria’s earnings from exports of non-crude oil products overtook crude oil exports for the first time in at least six years in the second quarter of 2026, according to Foreign Trade in Goods statistics released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), doubling the country’s trade surplus from a year earlier.
Non-crude oil exports, a category dominated by kerosene-type jet fuel, gas oil, natural gas and urea, totalled N14.11 trillion in the April-to-June quarter, against N12.91 trillion in crude oil exports, NBS data show.
Crude’s share of total exports fell to 47.8 percent, the lowest quarterly figure in NBS data reviewed by BusinessDay going back to 2020, down from 52.6 percent in the second quarter of 2025 and 62.9 percent as recently as the first quarter of 2025.
Nigeria’s total merchandise exports rose 18.8 percent year-on-year to N27.02 trillion, while imports fell 12.6 percent to N14.42 trillion, widening the trade surplus to N12.60 trillion from N6.26 trillion in the same quarter of 2025, the data show.
Total trade for the quarter was N41.44 trillion. Against the first quarter of 2026, imports rose 5.9 percent and exports rose 27.6 percent, NBS figures show.
The shift in export composition tracks the ramp-up of Nigeria’s Dangote refinery, whose petroleum-product output has increasingly displaced imported fuel while adding to the country’s export volumes.
Imports of mineral products, the NBS category covering petroleum and related fuels, fell 66.5 percent year-on-year to N1.91 trillion in the quarter, cutting their share of total imports to 13.3 percent from 34.6 percent a year earlier, according to the data.
Read also: Nigeria trade surplus jumps to record on refinery boom, oil shock
The refinery has attained production capacity of 710,000 barrels per dasy, confirmed Aliko Dangote, president of the Dangote group.
Even so, crude petroleum remained the single largest traded commodity. It was Nigeria’s top export product at N12.91 trillion, or 47.8 percent of world exports by value, followed by kerosene-type jet fuel at N2.94 trillion covering 10.9 percent, natural gas at N2.82 trillion covering 10.4 percent and urea at N2.12 trillion accounting for 7.8 percent of total non-crude oil exports, NBS product-level data show.
On the import side, motor spirit, or petrol, remained the top single import at N952.1 billion, or 6.6 percent of import value, followed by crude petroleum itself at N786.7 billion covering 5.5 percent, reflecting continued crude purchases for domestic refining, and durum wheat at N404.7 billion, accounting for 2.8 percent.
Used diesel-engine vehicles above 2,500cc worth N349.1 billion and solar photovoltaic cells and modules worth N213.2 billion also ranked among the top ten imported products.
India was Nigeria’s largest export destination in the quarter at N3.29 trillion, or 12.2 percent of total exports, with non-crude products, mainly refined fuels, accounting for more than two-thirds of that total, according to NBS country-level data.
Spain accounted for N1.98 trillion, the Netherlands, N1.90 trillion, the United States, N1.73 trillion and Togo at N1.50 trillion rounded out the top five destinations.
Togo’s exports to Nigeria were overwhelmingly non-crude, at N1.35 trillion of N1.50 trillion, consistent with the country’s role as a West African transshipment hub.
China remained Nigeria’s dominant source of imports, supplying N5.92 trillion, or 41 percent of total import value, more than four times the next-largest source, the United States, at N1.01 trillion.
India accounted for N924.5 billion worth of those goods, the Netherlands at N409.8 billion and Germany at N395.9 billion completed the top five import origins, NBS data show.
Within Africa, Togo, South Africa and Cote d’Ivoire were Nigeria’s top three export destinations, together accounting for 61 percent of the continent’s export total, while Libya, Ghana and Angola were the largest African sources of imports, according to the data.
