Visblog

Nigeria’s Cement Industry Faces Fresh Economic and Production Challenges in 2026 Nigeria's cement sector faces a perfect storm of high energy costs, weak consumer demand, and import competition. Here's what industry players are doing to stay afloat. Nigeria's cement industry, once celebrated as one of the country's most resilient manufacturing sectors, is under growing pressure. A combination of soaring energy costs, weakening consumer purchasing power, and creeping import competition has left major producers scrambling to protect margins and maintain market share. The sector, which employs tens of thousands of Nigerians directly and indirectly, generated significant optimism through the mid-2010s when domestic capacity expanded rapidly and Nigeria achieved near self-sufficiency in cement production. But 2025 and 2026 have brought a sharp reversal of fortunes, exposing structural vulnerabilities that industry insiders say were long ignored. Energy C...

Nigeria is intensifying efforts to diversify exports beyond crude oil. Here's how non-oil sectors like agriculture, solid minerals, and manufacturing are performing. For decades, Nigeria's economy has leaned heavily on crude oil — a resource that accounts for the overwhelming majority of the country's foreign exchange earnings and government revenue. But with global oil demand facing long-term uncertainty, volatile prices repeatedly exposing the fragility of that dependence, and the naira under sustained pressure, Nigerian policymakers and private sector players are now intensifying a push to grow and diversify the country's non-oil export base. The question is no longer whether Nigeria should diversify — everyone agrees it must. The real question is whether the structures, investments, and political will required to make that happen are finally falling into place. Why Diversification Has Always Been Urgent Nigeria's over-reliance on oil ...

A new Quartus Economics report confirms Nigeria's economy grew 8.34% over 2024–2025, the highest two-year expansion in over a decade, with per capita GDP rising 19.5%. Nigeria's economy is firmly back on a growth trajectory, and fresh data is making it hard to argue otherwise. A new report by Quartus Economics, a Lagos-based research house, has confirmed that the country recorded cumulative GDP growth of 8.34 percent between 2024 and 2025 — the highest two-year expansion in more than a decade. For a nation that watched its per capita GDP shrink by 21 percent between 2020 and 2023, this turnaround is significant. The report, titled The Journey to a Trillion-Dollar Economy: Nigeria on the Rise Again , drew data from the Central Bank of Nigeria, the National Bureau of Statistics, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank. Its conclusion was pointed: Nigeria is rising — and the numbers back it up. Per Capita Income Makes a Sharp Reversal Perhaps the most strik...

NNPC has signed an MoU with two Chinese firms to restart and expand the long-idle Warri and Port Harcourt refineries under a new technical equity deal. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with two Chinese firms to rehabilitate and expand the long-dormant Port Harcourt and Warri refineries, marking what the company describes as a major step toward restoring Nigeria’s domestic refining capacity. The agreement was signed in Jiaxing City, China, by NNPC Group Chief Executive Officer Bashir Bayo Ojulari, alongside Guan Jianzhong, Chairman of Sanjiang Chemical Company Limited, and Bill Bi, Chairman of Xingcheng (Fuzhou) Industrial Park Operation and Management Co. Ltd. Scope of the Agreement According to the reports seen By Visblog, NNPC, the MoU lays the groundwork for a Technical Equity Partnership that will focus on completing outstanding rehabilitation work, improving operational efficiency, and supporting...

A new report says Nigeria's economy is back on a growth path. We break down what the numbers mean for ordinary Nigerians and businesses in 2026. For the first time in years, the headlines about Nigeria's economy are carrying a different tone. Instead of recession warnings, debt alarms, and currency crises, a growing chorus of analysts, institutions, and government officials are speaking about growth, recovery, and even a trillion-dollar future. But what does this mean for the average Nigerian  the trader in Alaba market, the graduate job-hunting in Port Harcourt, or the small business owner in Kano struggling with high input costs? A fresh report released this week by Quartus Economics, a Lagos-based research house, has put the conversation back at the top of the national agenda. Titled The Journey to a Trillion-Dollar Economy: Nigeria on the Rise Again , the report draws on data from the Central Bank of Nigeria, the National Bureau of Statistics, the World Bank, and the ...

After years of being dismissed as inferior, Nigerian-made products are gaining serious market share in 2026 as currency pressures, improved quality, and shifting consumer attitudes drive a quiet manufacturing revolution. For most of the past three decades, "Made in Nigeria" was a phrase that Nigerian consumers said with a combination of affection and apology. Affection for the local hustle behind it. Apology because everyone in the room knew that, in most product categories, the local version was assumed to be inferior to the imported one. That assumption, slow as it has been to shift, is now cracking  and the numbers in 2026 are beginning to tell a different story. READ MORE : Nigeria's Cement War: How Dangote, BUA and Lafarge Are Fighting for Survival in a Collapsing Market A combination of forces  the naira's sustained weakness making imports dramatically more expensive, deliberate quality improvements by local manufacturers who saw opportunity in...

Nigeria's fintech sector is in fierce competition, and consumers are benefiting from better apps, lower fees, and faster transfers. Here is what is driving the war  and what it costs. Walk into any co-working space in Lagos or Abuja today and you will find at least a handful of people who will tell you they use ChatGPT, Gemini, or some other AI tool daily. The adoption has been genuinely remarkable Nigeria has developed one of the most enthusiastic AI user communities on the African continent, driven by a population that is young, digitally native, and hungry for tools that can help them compete globally. But here is the problem: most of the people using these tools are not using them particularly well. They are getting results that are mediocre at best, and they are either not realising it or have decided that mediocre results are good enough. In a competitive market, that mindset is going to cost them. The Adoption Wave Is Real Let us give credit where it is due. The sp...

A year after Nigeria removed fuel subsidies, businesses across the country have been forced to adapt or fold. Here is the real picture of who survived and how they did it. When the fuel subsidy was removed in May 2023, the announcement landed like a thunderclap on Nigerian businesses. Petrol prices jumped almost overnight, diesel  already punishingly expensive climbed further, and every business that depended on generators, logistics, or raw materials imported from outside Nigeria felt the hit almost immediately. The question now, more than a year into this new reality, is simple: how did businesses actually cope? The honest answer is that it depends entirely on who you ask, and what type of business they run. Some sectors found ways to adapt. Others quietly collapsed. And a stubborn middle group is still absorbing losses while trying to figure out what comes next. The Sectors That Took the Hardest Blows Manufacturing was among the first to feel the pain in a serious way. N...

CBN New Bank Charges 2026: Five Banking Services Nigerians Can Now Access for Free ABUJA — Millions of bank customers across Nigeria are set to benefit from reduced banking costs following a new directive by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which introduces a revised Guide to Charges for banks and other financial institutions. The updated policy, scheduled to take effect from May 1, 2026 , is designed to improve transparency, reduce excessive charges, and deepen financial inclusion in Africa’s largest economy. According to details reviewed by industry observers, the new guidelines eliminate or significantly reduce fees on several everyday banking services, offering direct relief to individuals and small businesses already grappling with rising living costs. Key Highlights of the CBN Bank Charges Review The latest revision reflects the apex bank’s effort to standardise banking fees and ensure that financial institutions operate within clearly defined cost struct...

For a couple of years, the mood around Nigerian startup funding felt like a long, uncomfortable silence. Investors who once rushed into the ecosystem with cheques and confidence quietly pulled back. Deals dried up. Founders who had built solid businesses found themselves stretching runway with whatever was left. It was a reset  and a painful one. But in 2025, something is shifting. Foreign capital is beginning to return to Nigeria’s startup ecosystem, and this time, the tone is different. The money is slower, more deliberate, and far more selective. Investors are no longer chasing hype  they are backing businesses that can prove they work. Why Nigeria’s Startup Funding Collapsed To understand the recovery, you have to start with the downturn. Between 2022 and 2024, rising global interest rates drained liquidity from venture markets. Investors became risk-averse almost overnight, and emerging markets like Nigeria felt the impact first. The naira’s sharp depre...

ABUJA — The Federal Government has approved a peculiar allowance exceeding ₦560,000 for research staff under a newly revised Consolidated Research and Allied Institutions Salary Structure (CONRAISS), in what officials describe as a major shift in Nigeria’s public sector wage policy. Findings monitored by Visblog and corroborated by senior administrative sources indicate that the new salary structure will officially take effect from May 2026 , impacting thousands of scientists, technologists, and researchers across federal institutions. Sources familiar with the development told VisBlog that the approval followed months of internal review, with authorities prioritizing the need to retain talent, reduce brain drain, and boost Nigeria’s research productivity . What Visblog Confirmed About the ₦560,000 Allowance According to documents and insider confirmations reviewed by Visblog, the newly approved peculiar allowance applies m...

PalmPay has announced 35 million users in Nigeria just six years after launch. What does this milestone reveal about the country's fast-moving fintech landscape. Six years after launching operations in Nigeria, digital banking platform PalmPay has announced that it now serves more than 35 million users. That number, shared this week, is a milestone that would have seemed improbable at the company's founding and that speaks to how dramatically the Nigerian financial services landscape has been reshaped in a short period. It also places PalmPay firmly within a small group of fintech platforms  alongside Moniepoint, OPay, and Opay's parent TransferPay group  that are competing to define what everyday financial services look like for tens of millions of Nigerians who were either unbanked or poorly served by traditional banks. How PalmPay Built Its User Base PalmPay's growth strategy has been built on a relatively straightforward value proposition: make financial ser...

  Nigeria's sweeping 2026 tariff reforms are reshaping trade, rewarding local producers and squeezing importers. Here is what businesses and consumers need to know. Nigeria entered 2026 with one of the most significant shifts in its trade policy in years. A sweeping fiscal reform package  covering revisions to import adjustment taxes across 192 tariff lines, selective import restrictions, excise duty changes, and a new green tax on certain imported vehicles  has set off a chain reaction across the private sector. The central logic of the policy is straightforward: reward local production, penalise excessive import dependence, and force businesses that have grown comfortable on import arbitrage to reconsider their entire model. Whether that logic translates into the intended outcomes depends heavily on how businesses adapt and how government manages the transition. The Architecture of the New Policy The 2026 tariff framework is built around a principle that mirror...