Bilateral trade between Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates rose 66.7 per cent from $3 billion in 2024 to approximately $5 billion in 2025, as both countries deepen economic relations and work toward the full implementation of a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement signed in January 2026.
The development was confirmed during a meeting on 19 August at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Abuja between Nigeria’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Sola Enikanolaiye, and UAE Ambassador Salem Saeed Alshamsi, marking one of the highest-level formal engagements between the two countries since CEPA was signed.
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What the CEPA commits
The Nigeria-UAE CEPA eliminates tariffs on more than 7,000 Nigerian products entering the UAE market and over 6,000 Emirati products exported to Nigeria. The UAE has already completed its domestic ratification process, while Nigeria’s National Assembly ratification is ongoing. Ambassador Alshamsi expressed optimism that stronger political relations would continue to drive increased trade and investment, and discussions included aviation connectivity — specifically the proposed commencement of Emirates Airline operations in Abuja — as a practical enabler of expanded commercial ties.
The UAE has positioned the CEPA programme as central to its ambition to grow non-oil foreign trade to $1.1 trillion by 2031. With 32 CEPAs finalised and 14 in force globally, the programme demonstrates the UAE’s commitment to open trade frameworks in high-growth markets — and Nigeria, as the continent’s largest economy and fastest-growing consumer market, is one of the agreement’s most strategically significant signatories.
$5 billion in bilateral trade between Nigeria and the UAE in a single year is a commercially significant milestone. The question is how that trade is distributed between the two countries — and whether Nigerian businesses and SMEs are capturing a meaningful share of the market access the CEPA creates.
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The concern for Nigerian manufacturers
The Alliance for Economic Research and Ethics has raised a pointed critique of the CEPA’s current structure, noting that it grants immediate duty-free access to over 7,000 UAE product categories entering Nigeria, while Nigerian manufacturers in Free Trade Zones remain subject to a 25 per cent domestic sales cap that prevents them from competing freely in the local market on equal terms.
AERE’s analysis describes the arrangement as a policy inconsistency in which a manufacturer in Dubai can access the Nigerian market duty-free while a Nigerian manufacturer in an FTZ in Lekki faces regulatory restrictions that a UAE competitor does not. In an environment where Nigerian manufacturers are already absorbing interest rates above 30 per cent and managing fragmented infrastructure costs, the structural asymmetry raises genuine concerns about whether the CEPA’s benefits will accrue primarily to Emirati exporters rather than Nigerian producers.
The Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment has signalled awareness of the issue, with the government working to ensure that CEPA implementation includes reciprocal commitments and that Nigerian businesses receive the capacity-building and export-readiness support needed to compete in the UAE market as actively as UAE companies compete here.
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What it means for Nigerian businesses
For Nigerian SMEs with export capacity in agriculture, food processing, textiles, crafts, and creative industries — sectors where UAE consumer demand for African goods exists and is growing — the CEPA creates a concrete and structured market access opportunity. The zero-tariff pathway into a UAE market of millions of high-income consumers, combined with the UAE’s position as a global re-export hub, gives Nigerian exporters a potential gateway to markets well beyond the Emirates itself.
A trade agreement is an opening, not a guarantee. Nigerian businesses that invest in meeting UAE import standards, building relationships with UAE distributors, and positioning their products for a premium consumer market will benefit from CEPA. Those that wait for the agreement to deliver results without that investment will find that the opening was used by someone else.
