Headlines
US Imports $1.34bn Nigerian Crude Oil in Five Months Despite Trump Tariffs
The United States imported Nigerian crude oil worth $1.34 billion between January and May 2025, reinforcing Nigeria’s position as America’s top African crude supplier despite growing pressures on broader trade flows.
Data from the U.S. Census Bureau and Bureau of Economic Analysis showed that the U.S. purchased 17.39 million barrels of Nigerian crude in the five-month period, with oil exports continuing to dominate bilateral trade even as volumes declined from the same period last year.
This reflects a 12.7% year-on-year drop in volume and an 11.8% decline in value, highlighting changing dynamics in the U.S. oil market, including increased domestic output and shifting sourcing preferences.
Nigeria accounts for 62% of U.S. crude imports from Africa
Nevertheless, Nigerian crude still accounted for more than 62% of U.S. crude imports from Africa, far ahead of Libya, Angola, and Ghana, whose combined exports to the U.S. totaled $811 million during the same period.
In May 2025 alone, Nigeria exported 4.2 million barrels of crude to the U.S., valued at $311 million, down from $368 million in April. Customs and C.I.F. (Cost, Insurance, and Freight) data showed similar figures, with Nigeria’s oil exports to the U.S. recorded at $1.34 billion and $1.38 billion, respectively, reaffirming its role in transatlantic energy trade.
However, while crude shipments remained relatively stable, Nigeria’s overall export performance to the U.S. is weakening under the weight of America’s new trade policies.
Nigeria’s trade surplus wiped out as U.S. exports surge
Total U.S. imports from Nigeria fell to $2.12 billion in the first five months of 2025, compared to $2.65 billion in the same period of 2024, a drop of $527 million, or nearly 20%.
This contraction follows an executive order signed by U.S. President Donald Trump in April imposing a flat 10% import tariff on most countries. Nigeria was subject to an even higher 14% tariff, having previously run a significant trade surplus with the U.S.
Although crude oil, a strategic commodity, was exempted from the tariff regime, Nigeria’s non-oil exports have been severely impacted. Key sectors such as agriculture and manufacturing have seen reduced demand from American buyers. In May 2025, total U.S. imports from Nigeria stood at $400 million, down from $517 million in the same month of 2024.
While Nigerian exports have declined, American exports to Nigeria have surged, up 17.8% year-on-year. Between January and May 2025, the U.S. exported goods worth $2.42 billion to Nigeria, compared to $2.05 billion in the same period of 2024. This shift has reversed the trade balance between the nations.
Whereas Nigeria posted a $596 million surplus in the first five months of 2024, the U.S. recorded a $295 million surplus by May 2025. In May alone, America exported $515 million worth of goods to Nigeria, while imports from Nigeria stood at $400 million, giving the U.S. a monthly trade surplus of $115 million.
One of the major drivers of this turnaround is the U.S. automobile sector. Exports of motor vehicles and parts to Nigeria reached $426 million in the first five months of 2025, including $312 million in passenger vehicles, $29 million in trucks and buses, and $86 million in spare parts. These figures reflect both Nigeria’s growing appetite for automobiles and the increasing reliance on American suppliers for high-value manufactured goods.
Egypt and South Africa top African traders to the US
Nigeria’s broader trade relationship with the U.S. appears to be losing steam. The country now accounts for just 10.8% of U.S. imports from Africa and 14.8% of exports to the continent, both figures down slightly from the previous year.
Egypt has overtaken Nigeria as America’s leading African export destination, with U.S. exports to Egypt jumping by 76% year-on-year to $3.43 billion. Meanwhile, South Africa remains dominant on the import side, with the U.S. importing $8.67 billion worth of South African goods between January and May 2025, more than four times the volume of Nigerian exports.
With Nigeria’s total trade volume with the U.S. now standing at $4.54 billion, the country trails Egypt and South Africa, raising questions about its long-term competitiveness in U.S.–Africa trade relations.
As global supply chains evolve and protectionist policies reshape international commerce, Nigeria’s dependence on crude oil and limited diversification may continue to weigh on its position in the American market.
In the corresponding period of 2024, the U.S. had imported 20.4 million barrels of Nigerian crude worth $1.52 billion.
Source: Nairametrics
The Super Eagles’ 2026 World Cup dream suffered a major blow on Sunday as DR Congo advanced to the intercontinental playoff following a dramatic penalty shootout at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat.
Nigeria’s hopes of qualifying ended in heartbreaking fashion, marking the second consecutive year the Super Eagles will miss out on the world stage.
The match ended 1–1 after 120 minutes of regulation and extra time, sending the high-stakes encounter to penalties.
Nigeria initially went ahead through Frank Onyeka in the third minute, but DR Congo equalised in the 32nd minute through M. Elia.
The tension continued into the penalty shootout.
Nigeria’s Calvin Bassey and Moses Simon missed early chances, while Nwabali denied DR Congo’s first penalty.
Akor Adams kept the Super Eagles alive, but DR Congo struck back through Sadique and later scored the decisive fourth penalty, leaving Nigeria trailing 4–3 in the shootout.
The victory sets up DR Congo for a chance to secure one of the final World Cup tickets to the expanded 48-team tournament in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
Nigeria’s defeat marked the second consecutive year the Super Eagles will miss out on the world stage.
Both teams had earned their places in the final after dramatic semi-finals.
Nigeria had booked their place in the final with a dramatic 4–1 extra-time win over Gabon in Thursday’s semi-final at the Moulay El Hassan Stadium.
DR Congo also advanced with a 1–0 victory over Cameroon at the Al Barid Stadium the same evening.
The Leopards now await their intercontinental playoff opponent, keeping alive their hopes of reaching the 2026 World Cup, while the Super Eagles’ campaign comes to an agonising end in Rabat.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has expelled Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Nyesom Wike, its suspended National Secretary, Samuel Anyanwu, and former Governor of Ekiti State, Ayo Fayose.
Their expulsion was announced on Saturday at the party’s National Convention in Ibadan, Oyo State.
The Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) has insisted that there is Christian genocide ongoing in Nigeria, hence demanding end to the alleged Christian killings.
Speaking on Thursday after an emergency executive meeting of the Fellowship held at its national headquarters in Lagos, PFN President, Bishop Francis Wale Oke, said the body would no longer remain silent while Christians are “targeted, killed, raped, and displaced” across the country.
He said: “There is Christian genocide going on in Nigeria. If we call it by any other name, it will bring Nigeria down. We are crying out to our international friends, beginning with America and Donald Trump. Whatever you can do to help our government put an end to it, come quickly and get it done. When on Christmas Day, Christmas Day was turned a bloody day in Benue State, and hundreds were massacred. And we are to be conducting mass funerals when we are not in open conflict. What do you call that? And this is different from individual cases.
“Let us call a spade a spade. There is Christian genocide ongoing in Nigeria,”Bishop Oke declared.
“Even while we speak, killings are still taking place in Borno, Plateau, and Benue states. When 501 Christians were massacred in Dogon Noma in Plateau, what do we call that? When Christmas Day turned into a bloody day in Benue, with hundreds massacred, what name should we give it?
While noting that the United States President Donald Trump spoke the truth, the PRN President cited the case of Leah Sharibu who was abducted alongside other Chibok girls and has since remained in captivity.
“Like the case of Leah Sharibu. Where is Leah Sharibu? Like the case of Deborah that was lynched and burned alive in Sokoto? What about that? And several of our girls were kidnapped and forced, given out as wives by force without the consent of their parents and their Christian parents. And the Christian parents would not see them for years.And this has been going on. We have been talking and we are not taking it seriously. And it has been going on again and again, until Donald Trump now spoke. And Donald Trump spoke the truth. There is Christian genocide going on in Nigeria.
“Like you will have picked in the news, even since this narrative began, killing was still going on in Borno, in Plateau, in Benue, up until yesterday. What are we saying? When 501 Christians were massacred in Dogonaya in Plateau State, what do we call that? And for no offense other than they are Christians.”
Oke recalled that the Christian community had repeatedly called the attention of the government to the alleged genocide with no decisive action from the authority.
The cleric expressed his backing for President Trump’s intervention, adding that Trump only echoed what Nigerian Christians had been saying for year
“I was part of the team that went to see the immediate past President, Muhammadu Buhari. We spoke very strongly about this and the President listened to us, but he completely ignored the main issue we came for, If we came and spoke with such vehemence, with such passion, and then you pick the peripheral matter and left this matter alone, I knew that day that his government was complicit in what was going on,” he added.
Oke alleged that the killings across parts of Nigeria were systematic and targeted on Christians, lamenting that the killings had continued unchecked despite repeated appeals from the Church.
“The evidence is all over the place. There is nothing anybody can say that can whitewash it. It is evil, it is blood shedding, it is mass murder and it is genocide. The time to stop it is now. That is what the church in Nigeria is saying with one voice.
“Christians in this nation must be free to practice their faith in any part of Nigeria as bona fide citizens of Nigeria.
“These armed bandits, Fulani herdsmen, Boko Haram, ISWAP, all of them using Islam as a cover. We have been living in peace with our Muslim brothers for a long, until this violent Islamic sect came up with an intent to make sure they impose Sharia on all Nigerians,” Oke said.
Bishop Oke called on President Bola Tinubu to decisively overhaul the nation’s security architecture, and ensure justice for victims of religious violence. He questioned why those responsible for notorious attacks—such as the killing of Deborah Samuel in Sokoto and the abduction of Leah Sharibu and the Chibok schoolgirls—remain unpunished.
“The government should prove by action, not words, that it is not complicit,” he said. “When hundreds are buried in mass graves and the whole world sees it, who can deny it? Why should we play politics with the blood of Nigerians?”
The PFN urged President Tinubu’s administration to rebuild trust by ensuring that the security architecture of the country is not infiltrated by those sympathetic to extremist ideologies.
Oke further condemned the government’s rehabilitation of so-called “repentant terrorists,” describing the move as a grave security.
He assured Christians that the PFN would continue to speak out until the killings stop. “We are not going to keep quiet. We will keep raising our voices until justice is done and every Nigerian, regardless of faith, can live in peace. The truth may be suppressed for a time, but it cannot be buried forever,” he said.
The meeting, which drew PFN leaders from across the country, reaffirmed the body’s commitment to national unity, peace, and the protection of fundamental human rights, while urging the media to “side with the oppressed” and report the truth without fear or bias.
