Nigeria's Passenger Car Imports Rose to a Record 527 Billion Naira in the Third Quarter of 2025.
Author: Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Native Villagers Association
Published by: NIGERIA-HUNAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
Time: 2025.12.16 12:04
According to the report by Nigeria-Hunan Chamber of Commerce.
Nigeria's total import volume of passenger vehicles registered in the third quarter of 2025 stood at 527 billion Naira, which is more than double the 254 billion Naira recorded in the corresponding period of 2024. As a result, the performance in the third quarter pushed Nigeria's total passenger vehicle import volume to 1 trillion Naira in the first nine months of 2025, accounting for more than half of the cumulative volume in the nine-month period. This growth comes against the backdrop that the trade continues to adjust in response to the fallouts of exchange rate liberalization and Naira depreciation. Data from the foreign trade report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) indicates that passenger vehicle imports registered a substantial year-on-year increase, despite the rising import costs and inflation that have weighed on household purchasing power. Such an uptick, when compared with the corresponding period last year, forms part of the robust growth in imports recorded in the first nine months of 2025. Nigeria still heavily relies on the foreign vehicle market, with the United States, Dubai, and South Africa being the main import hubs for passenger cars entering Nigeria. The total value of imported used cars this quarter reached 234.7 billion Naira, of which 184 billion Naira were imported from the United States.
According to data from NBS, the total value of passenger vehicle imports in Nigeria from January to September 2025 hit 1 trillion Naira, surpassing the 894 billion Naira recorded in the same period of 2024. In US dollar terms, this equates to approximately 689 million US dollars, based on an average exchange rate of 1,450 Naira per US dollar. This growth has occurred despite a moderate import volume in the previous year, when Nigeria’s total passenger vehicle imports in 2024 stood at 1.2 trillion Naira, a decline from the record high of 1.4 trillion Naira registered in 2023.
The peak in 2023 coincided with the initial depreciation of the Naira following the removal of exchange rate controls, a measure that caused a sharp surge in the Naira-denominated value of imports across multiple categories, including motor vehicles.
Quarterly data for 2025 points to a renewed acceleration. Passenger vehicle imports in the third quarter jumped to 527 billion Naira, more than double the 254.6 billion Naira recorded in the first quarter and significantly higher than the 224.5 billion Naira reported in the second quarter.
The third-quarter figure represents the highest value of passenger vehicle imports for this period since 2020, highlighting the persistence of import demand despite elevated foreign exchange costs.
Historically, the largest quarterly import bill for passenger vehicles was recorded in the second quarter of 2023, when import volume surged to 809.6 billion Naira.
This quarter marked the immediate aftermath of exchange rate unification, a policy announced shortly after President Bola Tinubu took office, during which the Naira depreciated sharply and import values were rapidly repriced. Data indicates that the recent growth in passenger vehicle imports has been driven not so much by a surge in vehicle numbers as by exchange rate movements, as the weaker Naira has inflated the local currency cost of imported vehicles. Despite policy to boost local vehicle assembly, Nigeria continues to import the vast majority of its passenger vehicles, leaving the sector highly exposed to currency fluctuations. The sustained rise in import values into 2025 suggests that demand for vehicles—whether for household use, commercial transportation or ride-hailing fleets—has remained resilient even amid price hikes.
