Togo surpasses South Africa as Nigeria’s Prefereed African trading Partner in Q2 2025
Nigeria’s trade affiliations within Africa experienced a significant transformation in the second quarter of 2025, with Togo eclipsing South Africa to ascend as the nation’s foremost African trading partner.
This development is chronicled in the most recent Foreign Trade in Goods Statistics report issued by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The NBS data elucidates Togo’s ascent in both export and import domains, underscoring the West African country’s burgeoning significance as a pivotal trade nexus in the region.
Togo’s trade surge
In the first quarter of 2025, Togo was positioned fourth among Nigeria’s African export destinations with N134.8 billion in trade, exclusively comprised of non-crude oil commodities.
By the second quarter, its status evolved as exports to Togo escalated to N811.97 billion, constituting 27.4% of Nigeria’s total exports to Africa. Of this, N113.3 billion derived from crude oil, while N698.7 billion was attributed to non-crude oil merchandise.
This six-fold amplification in trade volume indicates Nigeria’s increasing dependency on Togo’s re-export and logistics capabilities. With the port of Lomé acting as one of West Africa’s most active transshipment centers, a substantial portion of Nigerian exports to Togo may be intended for distribution across francophone West Africa.
Regarding imports, Togo also led in Q2, supplying Nigeria with goods valued at N211.99 billion, representing 25.8% of total imports from Africa. This solidified Togo’s role as Nigeria’s largest African trade partner overall, not solely on the export side but also as the principal import source.
South Africa’s downturn
South Africa, which dominated the list in Q1 with N708.7 billion worth of imports from Nigeria, descended to second place in Q2. Its exports from Nigeria contracted to N473.65 billion, a precipitous decline of 33% compared with the preceding quarter.
Crude oil continued to comprise the majority of the trade, with N430.8 billion in Q2 as opposed to N704.7 billion in Q1. Regarding imports, South Africa supplied Nigeria with N115.15 billion in Q2, reduced from N125.38 billion in Q1.
Although it retained second place as a source of imports, the contraction signifies Nigeria’s evolving trade flows away from South Africa towards West African counterparts.
Other notable changes in rankings
Ivory Coast preserved its third-place status in both quarters, albeit with a slight decline in trade volume from N428.56 billion in Q1 to N408.97 billion in Q2. Crude oil remained predominant, accounting for N354.1 billion of the Q2 figure.
Ghana ascended to fourth place in Q2 with N307.47 billion in exports from Nigeria, rising from fifth place and N122.07 billion in Q1. Remarkably, Ghana’s imports were balanced between crude oil (N154.9 billion) and non-crude goods (N152.6 billion), illustrating a more diversified trade relationship compared to South Africa.
Mauritius entered the top five in Q2, recording N264.98 billion in exports from Nigeria, exclusively in non-crude oil products. This marks a new entrant this year into Nigeria’s top African partners, reflecting expanding trade with island economies.
Senegal, which was third in Q1 with N346.26 billion in imports from Nigeria, slipped to sixth in Q2 with N222.31 billion. Cameroon rose to seventh place at N106.18 billion, while Equatorial Guinea climbed to eighth at N96.93 billion, both absent from the top 10 in Q1. Benin Republic and Niger Republic rounded out the top 10 in Q2, albeit with relatively modest trade volumes of N37.58 billion and N26.19 billion respectively.
Other Q1 partners, such as Burkina Faso and Swaziland, fell out of the top 10 list entirely.
Regarding imports, Togo’s ascendancy to first place in Q2 supplanted Angola, which was Nigeria’s largest African import source in Q1 at N224.39 billion but vanished from the top 10 entirely by Q2.
Equatorial Guinea emerged as a new entrant in Q2, supplying N97.93 billion worth of goods, sufficient to secure fourth place.
Other traditional suppliers, such as Egypt, Morocco, and Tanzania, remained in the rankings but witnessed 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.
