Envoy: Nigeria now US’ second-largest trading partner in Sub-Saharan Africa after nearly $15bn trade in 2025
Envoy: Nigeria now US’ second-largest trading partner in Sub-Saharan Africa after nearly $15bn trade in 2025
Nigeria and the United States recorded nearly $15 billion in two-way trade in 2025, making Africa’s most populous country Washington’s second-largest trading partner in sub-Saharan Africa.
Keith Heffern, chargé d’affaires of the US mission in Nigeria, spoke in Lagos on Wednesday during the US 250th Independence Day celebration.
Speaking on diplomatic relations between both countries, Heffern said the US government places trade and investment at the heart of its engagement across Africa.
“Nigeria is now the United States’ second-largest trading partner in sub-Saharan Africa,” he said.
“In 2025, two-way trade between our countries reached nearly $15 billion, a 14 percent increase over 2024. These aren’t just numbers.
“With more than 100 US companies operating in Nigeria, they represent jobs, opportunities, and economic transformation for Americans and Nigerians.
“One of our key priorities at the US mission in Nigeria is helping US companies succeed in this market.”
Heffern said US has partnered with Nigeria’s ministry of industry, trade, and investment to deliver and execute a five-year memorandum of understanding (MoU) called the US-Nigerian commercial and investment partnership.
“Now in year two, this partnership is a leading example of our bilateral commercial relationship in action,” he said.
“As a private sector-led initiative, we have nearly 50 US and Nigerian companies uniting business leaders and policymakers to remove barriers to trade and investment.
“In January, Lagos hosted the first ministerial-level meeting under the partnership.
“Through this partnership, we have advanced cooperation in three strategic sectors: agriculture, the digital economy, and infrastructure, to drive long-term growth and shared prosperity.”
Heffern said security cooperation between both countries complements the commercial relations and plays an equally vital role in advancing stability, protecting shared interests, and creating the conditions for sustained prosperity.
He noted that earlier this year, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) working alongside the US Drug Enforcement Administration, helped dismantle a major transnational criminal organisation involved in drug trafficking and money laundering.
The envoy lauded the progress of partnership between US and Nigeria, adding that Washington is making one of its most significant investments anywhere in the world in Lagos.
In April, the US government announced expanded support for agricultural trade with Nigeria through the export credit guarantee programme (GSM-102) of the US department of agriculture.
