• Nigeria’s exports to Togo surged six-fold to ₦812 billion in Q2 2025, overtaking South Africa.
• Lower costs, shorter dwell times and CFA franc stability make Lomé the preferred trade route.
• Togo is expanding port capacity with AfDB-backed financing to capture sustained Nigerian flows.

Lomé has emerged as Nigeria’s foremost African trade partner, overtaking South Africa on the back of steep logistics advantages. Official Nigerian Bureau of Statistics data show exports to Togo surged to ₦812 billion in Q2 2025, six times the ₦134.8 billion recorded in Q1. The jump gave Togo a 27.4% share of Nigeria’s intra-African shipments.

The shift is largely logistical rather than demand-driven. Moving a 40-foot container through Apapa costs about US$4,800, according to the World Bank’s Doing Business in Nigeria 2024 annex. Lomé Container Terminal lists the same unit at US$1,050. Even after adding US$1,100–1,300 for the 400-kilometre truck haul to Lagos, shippers save US$1,500–1,700 per box — nearly 20% of a standard cargo’s cost.

Time efficiency compounds the price gap. Nigerian Ports Authority dashboards reported Apapa dwell times averaging 18.4 days in March 2025, compared with 4.2 days in Lomé. For Nigerian manufacturers paying 25–30% annual naira interest rates, each week saved frees up working capital worth around 0.6% of shipment value, translating into billions of naira per quarter.

Currency factors further strengthen Lomé’s pull. The CFA franc’s peg to the euro allows exporters to collect proceeds in Lomé and convert offshore at the official BCEAO rate. With Nigeria’s parallel naira market trading at a 20–30% discount in Q2, exporters effectively gained an extra six cents per dollar without breaching ECOWAS rules.

Imports mirror the export flows. Nigeria bought ₦212 billion in goods from Togo in Q2, equal to 25.8% of all African imports. Much of this was re-export cargo — rice, sugar and textiles — cleared in Lomé for road delivery into Nigeria. Customs records note consignments nominally declared for Niger and Burkina Faso but discharged into Lagos warehouses, feeding both formal and informal markets.

Infrastructure is scaling up to lock in the advantage. On 14 May 2025, Togo’s Council of Ministers approved a 650,000-TEU terminal, backed by a 30 June loan agreement led by the African Development Bank. The financing signals that public lenders expect Nigerian-originated flows to persist.

South Africa, long Nigeria’s lead African partner for autos, machinery and energy products, slipped to second place. Exports there dropped 33% quarter-on-quarter to ₦473.7 billion, cutting its share to 16%. With cost, time and currency dynamics all skewed in Togo’s favour, analysts view Lomé’s dominance as structural rather than temporary.

Idriss Linge