Nigeria’s agriculture sector posted a turnover of N101.46 trillion in 2025, up from N96.46 trillion in 2024, as annual real growth climbed to 2.92 per cent from 1.69 per cent.
This reflects renewed investor confidence and supportive government policies.
Full-year Gross Domestic Product data released by the National Bureau of Statistics showed that the sector’s nominal contribution to GDP rose by 5.18 per cent year-on-year.
Analysts say the improvement signals stronger capital inflows and expanding activity across key value chains, bolstered in part by importation waivers introduced by the Federal Government. A breakdown of the 2025 performance highlights crop production as the dominant driver, contributing N64.41 trillion. Livestock followed with N25.66 trillion, forestry generated N6.47 trillion, while fishing accounted for N4.92 trillion, bringing the total turnover to N101.46 trillion.
This marks a notable improvement over 2024, when crop production stood at N61.92tn, livestock contributed N24.80 trillion, forestry generated N5.28 trillion, and fishing N4.46 trillion, with the sector’s total turnover at N96.46 trillion.
Quarterly data further underline the upward trajectory. The sector grew by 4 per cent year-on-year in real terms in the fourth quarter of 2025, surpassing the 2.54 per cent recorded in the same period of 2024. Overall, agriculture contributed 27.55 per cent to aggregate GDP in 2025, reaffirming its role as a cornerstone of the Nigerian economy.
The Chairman of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Agriculture and Allied Group, Tunde Banjoko, attributed the stronger performance largely to increased private sector participation and clearer policy direction.
“We can attribute this growth to the investments in agriculture from the private sector in recent times. We’ve seen a lot going into processing, palm plantation, cocoa plantation, and cocoa processing. There is a bit of confidence in some of the policies of the government, and the importation waivers that ran through 2024 and into 2025 also contributed to all that. The growth was largely driven by the private sector and maybe some foreign portfolio investments into agriculture,” he said.
However, Banjoko cautioned that the importation measures produced uneven outcomes across the sector.
“We didn’t balance it because some of those policies did not favour local farmers. Most of the importation done last year crashed food prices in the local markets.
“While importation favoured those who supplied to factories at good rates, local farmers didn’t benefit, and many were discouraged from producing.”
