Quote from Doyin on June 9, 2026, 9:59 am

1. Visualizing the Immediate Crash in Petrol Imports

The most staggering data point is the 96% drop in spending on petrol imports from Q1 2025 to Q1 2026. This first infographic is designed as a direct “then vs. now” comparison, making the abstract numbers instantly digestible.

It shows a massive N2.271 trillion cost in 2025 represented by a large red bar, which is contrasted against a tiny, faded N87.401 billion bar for 2026. A dramatic arrow highlights the 96.15% plunge. This visual emphasizes that for every N100 spent previously, Nigeria now spends just N4.

 

 

2. Historical Perspective: Contextualizing the Q1 Import Trend

The NBS data is not just a single snapshot; it describes a volatile history. To contextualize the scale of the 2026 crash, the second image is a five-year chronological bar chart (2022 to 2026), charting the quarterly import values described in the text.

This infographic utilizes the same clean, data-driven visualization style, showing the fluctuations: N2.694tn in 2022, a slight dip in 2023, a massive peak of N3.813tn in 2024, followed by the decline in 2025, and finally, the almost total collapse in 2026. This chronological visual reinforces how unprecedented the recent drop-off is in recent historical records.

 

3. A Dramatic Shift: Changing the List of Top Traded Products

A major impact of this import collapse is how it reshuffles Nigeria’s top trade commodities. This indicates that petrol, long a staple on the top-imported list, was completely absent in Q1 2026.

The third image is a split-column infographic designed to visualize this shift in rank. The left side (Q1 2025) lists Petrol (Motor Spirit Ordinary) as the top commodity. The right side (Q1 2026) shows petrol completely absent, with a new set of products—such as Gas Oil, Durum Wheat, and Data Transmission Machines—occupying the top rankings. This visual highlights the changing structure of Nigeria’s trade profile.

 

 

 

4. The Broad Context: Overall Import Trends and Refinery Influence

The final graphics provide the wider context of total imports and the growing influence of local refining capacity. This last visualization integrates multiple data points to tell that complete story in one complex image.

It is a composite chart with three main sections:

1. Total Imports (Q1 2025 vs Q1 2026): A comparison visual showing the 18.17% overall decline in Nigeria’s total imports (N16.6tn to N13.6tn).

2. Product Composition (Side-by-Side Donuts): Contrasting the share of imports in Q1 2025 and Q1 2026, visually demonstrating that the ‘Other Oil Products’ slice also collapsed in value, from N5.0tn down to N748bn. This reinforces that all refined products might be declining.

3. Local Refining Impact (Timeline): A vertical timeline conceptualizes how the ramp-up of domestic refining (the Local Refining Capacity) is directly responsible for pushing import reliance down over time.