Nigeria’s food import bill decreased to $2.34bn in 2025, marking a 7.37 per cent decline from the $2.53bn recorded the previous year.
According to financial analysts, this shift signals a critical transition in the nation’s economic priorities.
“We are seeing a structural realignment in how the country allocates its hard currency,” noted an analyst reviewing the data from the CBN’s latest Quarterly Statistical Bulletin.
“The drop in food-related foreign exchange demand suggests a moderation in import reliance, even as Nigeria continues to navigate food security challenges,” the analyst said.
Data from the apex bank revealed that food imports consumed an average of $195.28m monthly throughout 2025.
While the first half of the year saw a low of $141.13m in April, demand strengthened significantly in the latter half, peaking in September at $248.60m.
A CBN official, speaking on condition of anonymity, explained the monthly fluctuations: “The spikes we observed in the third and fourth quarters, particularly the September peak, reflect traditional seasonal stocking ahead of the festive period. However, the macro trend remains clear: the overall trajectory for food import financing is leaning downward.”
The most striking change in the CBN bulletin was not the decline in food spending, but the shrinking weight of food imports in the wider economy. Their share of total foreign exchange utilisation fell sharply from 9.49 per cent in 2024 to just 4.97 per cent in 2025.
This sharp decline occurred because Nigeria’s total foreign exchange utilisation expanded by a massive 77 per cent, climbing from $26.65bn to $47.17bn over the 12-month period.
“Food imports took up a much smaller portion of overall forex demand, even though the economy used substantially more foreign exchange across other vital sectors,” the CBN report stated.
A finance and economic expert, Sola Adekanmbi, suggested that this expansion indicates a resurgence of activity in non-agricultural sectors, such as manufacturing and industrial retooling, which required heavier capital injections in 2025.
He said, “An expanding forex pie coupled with a shrinking food bill is exactly what the economy needs to witness for sustainable long-term growth. It implies that liquidity is increasingly being directed toward productive capacity and industrial inputs rather than consumption.”
