Nigeria’s currency has staged a recovery following a year of turbulence, helped by rising oil receipts, strong diaspora remittances, and the clearance of foreign exchange backlogs, according to the country’s Budget Office.

Tanimu Yakubu, Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation, said on Saturday that reforms initiated by President Bola Tinubu’s administration in 2024 had repositioned the naira “as a tool of competitiveness rather than weakness.”

After clearing 1.5 billion US dollars in foreign exchange backlogs and scrapping multiple exchange windows in March 2024, Nigeria’s naira rebounded from a low of 1,800 to 1,525 naira per US dollar by August 2025, a gain of more than 15 percent.

Yakubu credited the turnaround to higher oil earnings, steady inflows from remittances, and the settlement of over four billion naira in foreign exchange arrears. He added that the unification of Nigeria’s foreign exchange market into a single transparent rate had restored investor confidence and boosted trade flows.

The effects have been visible in exports, particularly in commodities such as cocoa and sesame. Non-oil exports rose from 2.7 billion US dollars in the first half of 2024 to 3.2 billion US dollars in the same period of 2025, with volumes increasing from 3.83 million metric tonnes to 4.04 million metric tonnes.

“With a realistic exchange rate, our cocoa, sesame, and even processed chocolate became cheaper in New York, Mumbai, or São Paulo, without local producers earning less,” Yakubu said.

He characterised the reform process as a “reset” rather than a collapse, describing the outcome as a “virtuous cycle” in which competitiveness boosts exports, stronger inflows support the naira, and exporters benefit in local currency terms.

Yakubu argued that if the reforms are sustained, the naira could evolve from a symbol of weakness into an anchor of Nigeria’s growth strategy, attracting investment and supporting long-term trade expansion.