Nigeria’s foreign trade through Letters of Credit (LC) grew by 4.4 percent year-on-year, YoY, to $269.83 million in the first four months of 2025 (4m’25) from $258.46 million in 4m’24.
The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, disclosed this in its International Payments data. LC is a bank document guarantying payment for imports upon shipment. Until very recent, Nigerian importers had suffered from lack of LC acceptance by foreign partners due to difficulties associated with Nigeria’s weak foreign reserve position.
Consequently, Nigerian importers were forced to pre-pay before shipment. The rise in LC payments indicates rising confidence in the nation’s external sector with steady increases in net foreign reserves since this year.
However, a month-on-Month (MoM) breakdown of transaction volume in the first four months of this year still shows relative fluctuation.
In February it increased 48 percent month-on-month, MoM, to N95.6 million from $64.55 million in January and further declined by 54.4 percent MoM to $43.53 million before increasing by 47.7 percent MoM to $64.3 million in April 2025.
