Nigeria’s current account surplus rises 46% to $4.98bn

By Elizabeth Adegbesan
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said the country’s current account surplus rose by 46 percent year-on-year to $4.98 billion in the first quarter of 2026 (Q1’26).
The apex bank disclosed this in its Balance of Payments (BoP) report for the period, noting that the surplus also increased by 255.7 percent quarter-on-quarter from $1.4 billion in Q4’25.
According to the report, provisional balance of payments statistics showed that the $4.98 billion surplus was higher than the $1.40 billion recorded in Q4 2025 and $3.41 billion recorded in the corresponding period of 2025.
The CBN attributed the improvement to higher export earnings and reduced import expend...