Nigeria has over N40 trillion in untapped manufacturing opportunities, with imports accounting for 64 per cent of local demand for manufactured goods in 2025, a new report has revealed.
The report, entitled Nigerian Manufacturing Opportunity Report 2026, was launched yesterday by SEID Intel, the market intelligence unit of SEID, at the 54th Annual General Meeting of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, MAN.
According to the report, the 64 per cent import share represents a $29.4 billion market that was not served by domestic manufacturers in 2025, highlighting the potential for increased local production and deeper value chains.
The report examined manufacturing opportunities across Nigeria’s major subsectors, states, value chains and industrial clusters, while identifying areas where existing industrial capacity could be strengthened to improve competitiveness.
It identified the South-West as Nigeria’s largest manufacturing zone, while noting that other regions have developed strengths in areas including food and agro-processing, textiles, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, cement, steel and light manufacturing.
The report said the differences in industrial capacity across states and regions showed the need for a targeted approach to industrial development rather than a uniform strategy.
Speaking on the report, Managing Partner of SEID, Tubosun Akeju, said Nigeria already had the demand and industrial capabilities needed to build a stronger manufacturing sector.
Akeju said: “The opportunity is to understand where those strengths exist, deepen them and build the competitiveness required to capture more value locally and compete beyond our borders.”
He said the report provided decision-makers with insights into immediate opportunities, areas where the country was already making progress and measures required to unlock greater value.
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The report, however, noted that despite the importance of manufacturing to the economy, the sector had not grown at the same pace as the overall economy.
It said manufacturing’s contribution to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product, GDP, declined from 8.42 per cent in 2023 to 8.05 per cent in 2025.
According to the report, improving the sector would require more than increasing production, stressing the need to strengthen value chains, energy supply, logistics, infrastructure and technical skills.
It also identified exports as a major area of opportunity, noting that Nigeria’s manufacturing export intensity remained below the Sub-Saharan African average.
The report said Nigeria could leverage existing production capacity and resource advantages to improve quality, scale and cost competitiveness, enabling local manufacturers to compete more effectively in regional and global markets.
The report focused on five major manufacturing subsectors: light manufacturing and packaging; food and agro-processing; textiles, apparel and leather; chemicals and pharmaceuticals; and cement and steel.
It said three of the five subsectors accounted for about 71 per cent of manufacturing output, making their continued development critical to the performance of the sector.
It also cited gas-linked fertiliser production as an emerging area where Nigeria could compete by leveraging its feedstock, scale and industrial capacity.
According to SEID, the report is intended to provide investors with information on where to enter the manufacturing sector, manufacturers with insight into where to scale and policymakers with information on areas requiring intervention.
