Nigeria’s crude oil export value surges over 400% from 2020 to a record ₦55.3tn in 2024

Key Takeaways

  • Export values have grown over 400%, rising from ₦11.8 trillion in 2013 to a peak of ₦55.3 trillion in 2024, a fivefold increase driven by rising oil prices and a weaker naira.
  • 2015 and 2016 were the hardest years, with export values crashing as low as ₦6.8 trillion in 2015, reflecting the brutal impact of the global oil price collapse on Nigeria's most critical export.
  • The most explosive growth came from 2023 onwards, with values surging past ₦29 trillion in 2023 and peaking at ₦55.3 trillion in 2024, largely driven by the naira depreciation following Nigeria's 2023 foreign exchange reforms.
  • The first nine months of 2025 saw a slower pace than the previous year, with ₦37.7 trillion recorded between Q1 and Q3, lower than the ₦41.5 trillion recorded during the same period in 2024.

Nigeria’s crude oil export value shows a long cycle of decline, recovery, and a recent sharp surge between 2013 and 2024. After remaining relatively stable at ₦11.8 trillion in 2013 and ₦11.9 trillion in 2014, export earnings fell sharply to ₦6.8 trillion in 2015 and ₦7 trillion in 2016 during the oil price downturn. Revenues recovered in the following years, reaching ₦15.2 trillion in 2018, then dropped slightly to ₦14.7 trillion in 2019 and ₦9.4 trillion in 2020 amid global disruptions.

From 2021 onward, export values rebounded strongly, rising from ₦14.4 trillion to ₦21.1 trillion in 2022, ₦29 trillion in 2023, and surging to a record ₦55.3 trillion in 2024. Early data for 2025 suggests a slower pace than the previous year, with ₦37.7 trillion recorded between Q1 and Q3, lower than ₦41.5 trillion in the same period in 2024.

Source:

National bureau of statistics

Period:

2013 - Q1 - Q3 2025
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