{"id":1877,"date":"2025-07-29T08:13:54","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T08:13:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eandelmagazine.com\/eandelmagazine\/?p=1877"},"modified":"2025-07-29T08:13:54","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T08:13:54","slug":"nigerias-trade-rebounds-as-currency-stabilises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eandelmagazine.com\/eandelmagazine\/nigerias-trade-rebounds-as-currency-stabilises\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria\u2019s trade rebounds as currency stabilises"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Bethel Olujobi<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Naira stability is driving trade rebound in Africa\u2019s most populous nation.<\/p>\n

For importers like Williams Dabo Group, it\u2019s a long-sought relief.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe stability has helped us to make forecasts for the import of products and raw materials for our industry,\u201d Esther Williams, director and procurement officer at Williams Dabo Group, told BusinessDay.<\/p>\n

A predictable naira has meant lower trade costs for the business, \u201cespecially Free on Board (FOB),\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Since January this year, the naira has traded within a narrow band, averaging N1,544.25 per dollar, with its strongest pull at N1,477.72 in late January. This is a positive not just for Williams Dabo Group but also other businesses.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt shows something good has been happening in the macro policies of the central bank over the last two years. We\u2019re now at a new normal,\u201d said George Coleman, CEO of Coleman Wires and Cables.<\/p>\n

Coleman, whose company supplies cables to infrastructure and industrial projects within West Africa, said the naira\u2019s stability, not witnessed since the first quarter of 2023, has brought benefits, including some level of stability in decision making \u201cand also invariably increased investments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Businesses across sectors have reported sharp declines in FX-related losses, with a BusinessDay survey showing a drop from N951.7 billion in the first quarter (Q1) of 2024 to just N28.7 billion in Q1 2025.<\/p>\n

At the same time, the Nigeria Customs Service processed more import declarations in the Q1 of this year, calculated at 327,928, compared to 311,492 within the same period in 2024.<\/p>\n

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Coleman, who is also the chairman of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria Ogun State chapter, told BusinessDay that he is particularly excited about the rising momentum in the sector.<\/p>\n

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Banks\u2019 confidence returns<\/h3>\n

A BusinessDay survey of letters of credit issued by banks, which are often assurances by Nigerian importers to foreign manufacturers that payment for import goods will be made\u2014showed recovery in the first four months of the year after a dip in 2024.<\/p>\n

Tajudeen Ibrahim, an economist and director of research at Chapel Hill Denham Securities, said there\u2019s an increase in confidence level in the naira.<\/p>\n

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He said there is a significant improvement in liquidity, which makes this possible.<\/p>\n

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Ibrahim said the fact that Nigeria\u2019s commercial banks now allow customers to use their naira cards for foreign purchases \u201cis an early indication that things are improving.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams Dabo Group told BusinessDay that bank confidence in issuing letters of credit is \u201can added advantage as the risk of exchange rates fluctuations has improved.\u201d<\/p>\n

The stability, Ibrahim told this reporter, is largely driven by foreign portfolio investments attracted by high interest rates.<\/p>\n

Predicable pricing<\/h3>\n

Like Williams Dabo, the biggest gain so far for many in manufacturing has been the predictability of pricing.<\/p>\n

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Similarly, at Amayi Foods, where some components of its packaging are imported by the suppliers, price swings were once common.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year, packaging pricing was increasing very quickly. The price will change every two weeks or less,\u201d said Kudzayi Hove, the company\u2019s co-founder. \u201cBut pricing has been a little stable now. We\u2019ve been paying the same rate for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hove told BusinessDay that her company has enjoyed some calm, rare in Nigeria\u2019s trade environment, unlike during devaluation periods when they were forced to adjust pricing and sourcing to \u2018hedge\u2019 against the impact.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re on a bit of an even peel\u2026not expecting costs to rise or seeing costs rising sharply.\u201d<\/p>\n

That kind of predictability has long been missing from Nigeria\u2019s import system, said Jonathan Nicol, former chairman of the Shippers\u2019 Association of Lagos State.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is nothing as good as you wake up in the morning, you make your projections, and the system supports it,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can now place orders for whatever you want to import, and it remains unchanged. Then you are in business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Nicol noted that while FX stability has been a welcome change, the gains are sometimes neutralised by high port charges and operational inefficiencies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe exchange rate may be good, but at the end of the day, you go to the shipping lines and terminal operators, you lose the small money that you have made through foreign exchange,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Customs reported that in Q1 of the year, the currency\u2019s value changed over 60 times, affecting the pricing of duties paid by importers.<\/p>\n

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Nicol urged the government to reduce the broader cost of doing business and to resolve lingering issues with Customs processes that complicate cargo clearing and raise final delivery costs. For now, the gains are cautious.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bethel Olujobi Naira stability is driving trade rebound in Africa\u2019s most populous nation. For importers…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy","category-nigeria"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":"","thumbnail":"","medium":"","medium_large":"","large":"","1536x1536":"","2048x2048":"","wpucv-grid-three":"","wpucv-grid-two":"","wpucv-grid-one":"","wpucv-classic":"","wpucv-classic-small":"","wpucv-galary":"","covernews-slider-full":"","covernews-slider-center":"","covernews-featured":"","covernews-medium":"","covernews-medium-square":""},"author_info":{"info":["vicrollion"]},"category_info":"Economy<\/a> Nigeria<\/a>","tag_info":"Nigeria","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eandelmagazine.com\/eandelmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eandelmagazine.com\/eandelmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eandelmagazine.com\/eandelmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eandelmagazine.com\/eandelmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eandelmagazine.com\/eandelmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1877"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eandelmagazine.com\/eandelmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1877\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1880,"href":"https:\/\/eandelmagazine.com\/eandelmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1877\/revisions\/1880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eandelmagazine.com\/eandelmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eandelmagazine.com\/eandelmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eandelmagazine.com\/eandelmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}