Economy · Current account balance · Nigeria
Nigeria’s current account balance fell to 4.8% of GDP in 2025.
4.8% of GDP
2025
Down 2.7 pp from 2024.
Updated 8 Oct 2026
In plain words
4.8% of GDP
What it is. The current account balance adds up what Nigeria earns from abroad and what it pays out. It covers trade in goods and services, income on foreign investment and transfers such as money sent home by workers overseas. For Nigeria the result depends heavily on the value of exports against imports. Capital flows such as portfolio investment and borrowing are recorded in the financial account, outside this measure.
Higher is better. A positive balance means the country takes in more from the rest of the world than it spends there, so it needs less foreign borrowing to pay its way. A deficit means the gap has to be financed from abroad. The latest figure is 4.8% of GDP for 2025, down from 7.5% of GDP a year earlier, a fall of 2.7 percentage points. Since 2016 the balance has ranged from a low of −2.7% of GDP in 2020 to a high of 7.5% of GDP in 2024. The 2025 reading is still a surplus and sits in the upper part of that range.
Why it matters. A surplus of 4.8% of GDP means more foreign currency is coming into Nigeria than going out. That gives importers, borrowers with dollar debts and the state more room to cover payments abroad. The surplus is smaller than a year earlier, so that cushion has shrunk. The next annual figure will show whether the fall continues.
| Period | Current account balance · Nigeria |
|---|---|
| 2016 | 1.3% of GDP |
| 2017 | 3.6% of GDP |
| 2018 | 1.7% of GDP |
| 2019 | −2% of GDP |
| 2020 | −2.7% of GDP |
| 2021 | −0.53% of GDP |
| 2022 | 0.16% of GDP |
| 2023 | 1.3% of GDP |
| 2024 | 7.5% of GDP |
| 2025 | 4.8% of GDP |
Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators (CC BY 4.0) · Licence: CC BY 4.0
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Strata-AF™ Data, Current account balance, Nigeria, 2025; source World Bank, World Development Indicators (CC BY 4.0), retrieved 8 Oct 2026; https://data.strata-af.com/economy/current-account-balance/nigeria
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Methodology
Current account balance as a share of GDP. Unit: % of GDP. A negative value is a deficit.
Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators (series BN.CAB.XOKA.GD.ZS), retrieved through the World Bank API and published under CC BY 4.0. Updated annually; the World Bank's own source notes apply.