The Independent Media and Policy Initiative (IMPI) has said that one of the clearest indications of economic growth in Nigeria this year is the positive turnaround in the fortunes of companies listed in the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
In a policy statement signed by its Chairman Omoniyi Akinsiju, IMPI disclosed that almost all the companies that recorded losses in the first quarter of 2024 have announced in the same period of 2025.
“We can formally declare at this juncture that almost all companies listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) that suffered losses in the first quarter of 2024 are back to profit-making, as shown in their respective first-quarter 2025 balance sheets.
“We recall that Nestle Nigeria Plc, International Breweries Plc, and Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc were among the top consumer firms that reported the highest foreign exchange loss in the first three months of 2024. That year, the nearly 30 per cent devaluation of the naira hit the consumer firms hard. Nestlé posted an FX loss of N166.9 billion in Q1 from an FX gain of N390 million in 2023, followed by International Breweries with a loss of N162.2 billion from a gain of N1.22 billion.
“The foreign exchange loss of Dangote Sugar Refinery widened to N102.9 billion from N4.38 billion. At the same time, Nigerian Breweries Plc reported an FX loss of N72.85 billion, up from N14.64 billion, and Dangote Cement Plc had N63.77 billion, up from N9.79 billion. BUA Foods’ FX loss stood at N27.29 billion, while Lafarge Africa Plc recorded an FX loss of N21.8 billion from a gain of N320 million in the previous year. BUA Cement’s FX loss jumped to N10.06 billion from a gain of N1.71 billion, while NASCON Allied Industries Plc recorded a N3.06 billion FX loss, with no loss recorded in the previous year. Champion Breweries reported an FX loss of N740 million.
“These losses were direct consequences of the naira’s depreciation between January and March 2024, which led to the revaluation of the companies’ foreign currency obligations, hurting their profit after tax.
“The background is that there was no FX issue in the first quarter 2023. It became a major one in the second quarter when the then-new federal administration announced the harmonization of multiple foreign exchange windows and the adoption of a market-driven determination of exchange rates with the CBN merging all segments of the FX market into the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window and reintroducing the willing buyer, willing seller policy.
“The liberalisation of the foreign exchange regime in June 2023 weakened the naira from N463.38/$ to N1,354.2/$ as of May 4, 2024. At the parallel market, the naira was traded at around N1,410/$ as against N762/$ before the FX reform. Most of the loss-recording companies had foreign currency-denominated obligations in their books. The challenging business environment also pushed some multinationals to exit the country, as Procter & Gamble, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Nigeria, Equinor, Sanofi and Bolt Food announced plans to leave the country in 2023, it noted.
IMPI also provided insight into the profit margins of the companies in the first quarter of 2025 which in some cases exceeded all expectations and concluded that it was as a result of the ongoing economic reforms in the country.
The policy group said: “The economic narrative has substantially changed in the first quarter of 2025. The listed loss-making companies and others have witnessed a rebound. They did not just record profits, but their profit margins are impressive. This, for us, is a clear indication of the impact of the federal administration’s economic reforms.
“MTN Nigeria Communications Plc was the most impacted by the FX loss in 2024, but it declared a profit after tax of N133.7 billion for the first quarter of 2025, its first such declaration since 2023. Since announcing its first after-tax loss of N137 billion, MTN has recorded quarterly losses due to macroeconomic challenges. Despite reporting a record revenue of N3.36 trillion for 2024, its loss after tax stood at N400.44 billion.
“Nestle Nigeria Plc, also a former loss-making multinational, has now reported a pre-tax profit of N51.15 billion in the first quarter of 2025, marking a strong rebound from the N196.086 billion loss posted in the same period of 2024. This followed a return to profitability in the fourth quarter of 2024, signalling growing stability in the company’s financial performance. The unaudited results also showed a post-tax profit of N30.178 billion, representing 121 per cent year-on-year growth. In 2024, the company lost a lot of money due to exchange rate changes. However, those losses disappeared in the first quarter of 2025, giving profits a significant lift.
“The naira’s marginal appreciation and stability in the first quarter of 2025 with an average of N1,521.78/$ compared to the N1,621.71/$ average in the fourth quarter of 2024 lowered FX revaluation losses, giving room for higher profitability growth.
“This narrative is also reflected in BUA Cement’s first quarter 2025 financial numbers. The company’s top-line earnings rose by 80.49 per cent to N290.82 billion in the first quarter of 2025 from N161.13billion in the first quarter of 2024, followed by higher profit margins due to lower cost of sales growth (+31.25 per cent) and a significant drop (-91.69 per cent) in FX loss. The company’s profitability grew by triple digits to N99.74 billion.
“Champion Breweries made a strong comeback in the first quarter of 2025, moving from a loss in the same period last year to solid profitability. The company reported an impressive 317.93 percent year-on-year (YoY) growth in pre-tax profit to N1.740 billion, compared to a pre-tax loss of N798 million in the first quarter of 2024.
“We note that the first quarter of 2025 pre-tax profit already exceeded the company’s full-year 2024 profit by over 36 per cent, and profit after tax surged by 219.51 per cent year-on-year to N985 million, reversing an N824 million loss in the first quarter of 2024. The post-tax profit also surpassed the company’s full-year 2024 performance by 21 per cent. The impressive turnaround was driven by revenue growing faster than costs and expenses. The first quarter of 2025 profit already surpassed the entire profit made in the full year 2024.
“Dangote Cement Plc also recorded a surge in profit. It reported a pre-tax profit of N311.974 billion, representing an 87.48 per cent year-on-year growth compared to N166.404 billion recorded in the first quarter of 2024. The company also posted a profit after tax of N209.245 billion, up 85.71 per cent year-on-year, from N112.674 billion reported in the same period in 2024.
“Driving this strong bottom-line performance was an impressive revenue of N994.659 billion, marking a 21.69 per cent year-on-year increase from the prior year. Remarkably, revenue earned from the Nigerian operations of the company rose significantly to N696.042 billion, increasing its contribution to group revenue from 55.41 per cent in the first quarter of 2024 to 69.98 per cent in the first quarter of 2025.
“The company’s finance costs rose slightly due to a significant drop in foreign exchange losses, from N63.765 billion in the first quarter of 2024 to N17.472 billion.
“Nigerian Breweries (NB) Plc has reversed its N52 billion loss recorded in 2024. Unaudited accounts of NB for the first quarter ended March 31, 2025, showed that net revenue rose from N227 billion in the first quarter of 2024 to N383 billion in the first quarter of 2025. Operating profit grew by 238 per cent, from N25 billion in the first quarter of 2024 to N85 billion in the first quarter of 2025, with the profit after tax recovered to N45 billion,
“We have profiled these loss-making companies’ impressive return to profitability to show the impact of the federal administration’s economic reform policies.
“While we note this new regime of profitability, we also acknowledge the quantum leap in the profits declared by other companies listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange in the first quarter of 2025. This has implications for increased job creation, higher tax earnings by the federal administration, and enhanced GDP performance.”
The policy think tank also highlighted early results of efforts at diversifying the economy with focus on non oil exports
“Beyond the remarkable turnaround of companies from the financial doldrums recorded in the first quarter of 2024, another indicator of the country’s substantial progress in economic diversification and the impact of the policies deployed by the federal administration is the increase in Nigeria’s non-oil exports to $1.791 billion in the first quarter of 2025, up 24.75 per cent from the same period last year.
“The Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC) said that 197 products, including cocoa, fertiliser, cashew, and sesame seeds, were exported in the first quarter of 2025. This marks an increase from 162 products in the first quarter of 2024.
“We also note that export volume surged to 2.416 million metric tonnes, a 243.44 per cent jump compared to the first quarter of 2024. Cocoa beans alone accounted for 45.02 per cent of total exports, followed by urea/fertiliser (19.32 per cent) and cashew nuts (5.81 per cent). The extension to this is the increase in regional exports to ECOWAS countries to 223.10 per cent, from $19.5 million in Q1 2024 to $63.06 million in Q1 2025, while intra-African trade reached $32.73 million.
“This progress follows the record $5.456 billion in non-oil exports in 2024, the highest in the NEPC’s 49-year history. The performance also reflected the proactive efforts of the federal administration, led by President Bola Tinubu, to reposition Nigeria’s economy and empower local industries through strategic export growth and inter-agency collaboration.
“Following this progression, we acknowledge that Nigerian products are meeting global standards. This is evidenced in the 318 per cent rise in non-oil export value reported by the Lilypond Export Command of the Nigeria Customs Service during the first quarter of 2025, contributing to the country’s foreign exchange inflows,” it added.
