After years of foreign exchange volatility that eroded corporate earnings, Nigeria’s more stable naira in recent months appears to be restoring profitability across listed firms, though fortunes remain mixed across sectors.

The naira, which now trades around N1,483 to N1,540 to the US dollar at the official window, has held within this band for several months. This calm follows two years of erratic swings that left firms grappling with massive foreign-exchange revaluation losses.

Combined with an improved monetary environment, with the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) now retained at 27 percent, and inflation easing to 16.05 percent in October from 18.02 percent as of September 2025. This is a 52 percent drop from the 33.88 percent reported in October 2024; businesses are beginning to find firmer footing.

Nigeria’s economy expanded by 4.23 percent in the second quarter of 2025, driven by growth in trade, real estate, telecommunications, and agriculture, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

These macroeconomic improvements are reflected in the company’s earnings for the first nine months of 2025. An analysis of NGX 30 listed firms shows that twenty-six (28) of the firms surveyed after-tax profit rose by 72.7 percent to N7.6 trillion in the nine months of this year from N4.4 trillion in the same period of last year, reflecting broad-based profit recovery, particularly among those with domestic production bases and moderate import exposure.

The surveyed firms include BUA Foods, MTN, Dangote Cement, BUA Cement, Geregu Power, Transcorp Power, Nigerian Breweries, Lafarge Africa, International Breweries, Transcorp Hotel, Nestle Nigeria, Presco Plc, Okomu Oil, Dangote Sugar Refinery, Oando Plc, Transnational Corporation, Access Holding Plc, and Fidelity Bank.

Others include United Capital Plc, GTCO, Zenith Bank, Aradel Holdings, UBA, Stanbic IBTC, First Holdco, Wema Bank, Ecobank, and Seplat Energy.

For instance, BUA Foods’ profit more than doubled to N405 billion in the nine months of this year from N201 billion in the same period of 2024, supported by higher sales volumes and better price management. Dangote Cement’s profit surged to N1 trillion from N279 billion a year earlier, its highest in five years, amid stable energy costs and strong local demand.

“The growth is mainly reflective of the stability and slight appreciation of the naira. Last year was quite bad for most firms because of FX,” said Tunde Abioye, a research analyst at FBNQuest

“The trend is sustainable as long as the naira remains stable. However, the year-on-year growth might not be in the same magnitude as this year, because this year was helped by base effects from last year and several firms that implemented price increases,” Abioye said.

Adebayo Adebanjo, equity research analyst at CardinalStone Research, said, “It’s going to be sustainable going into the future. If you look at how the books of these companies have performed over the last two years, the biggest drag has been FX losses and the impact of higher operating costs. Their revenues have still been growing even in those periods, so they’ve shown that pricing has never been a problem.”

He added, “While we might not see the same rate of increase in prices going forward, there will still be some level of price increases. So there will be a combination of slower price increases, lower operating costs, and the absence of foreign exchange losses. All of these factors together should lead to much stronger earnings going forward.”

Telecoms and consumer goods companies show resilience

The telecom giant MTN Nigeria rebounded strongly, posting a N750 billion profit in 9M’25, reversing a N513 billion loss a year earlier. Revenue soared 57 percent year-on-year to N3.73 trillion, driven by data and fintech growth.

Karl Toriola, the CEO of MTN Nigeria, said MTN’s strong financial recovery raises hopes for the company’s ability to finish the year strong. However, this is dependent on its ability to maintain the momentum it has built over the past nine months with continued support from favourable macroeconomic conditions in the country.

“In the final quarter of the year, our focus is on sustaining the strong momentum built in the first nine months. We will continue to execute with discipline, leveraging our broad revenue streams and strengthened balance sheet to navigate market dynamics and capture growth opportunities,” Toriola said.

While some consumer-facing firms bounced back, others still struggled to regain profitability due to weak consumer spending. Nestlé Nigeria returned to profit with N72 billion in 9M’25 after two consecutive years of losses, but its earnings remained below pre-2023 levels despite revenue growth to N884 billion. Nigerian Breweries also swung back to profit at N85 billion after steep losses in 2023 and 2024, buoyed by improved cost efficiency and moderate price adjustments.

According to the Nigerian Breweries earnings report, the group delivered strong top-line growth in the nine months under review despite the high double-digit inflation rate that continues to constrain consumer spending and the high input costs.

“The Rights Issue programme of 2024 has contributed in no small measure to the positive turnaround in the profitability of the Group compared to a year ago,” the brewer said in a statement on the NGX.

Energy and agriculture sectors steady

In the energy sector, Seplat Energy’s profit rose sharply to N146 billion, up from N52 billion in 2024, while Oando Plc earned N201 billion after several volatile years. Power companies such as Geregu and Transcorp Power benefited from stable naira-denominated financing and improved energy demand from industries resuming expansion. Agricultural firms, notably Presco and Okomu Oil, posted strong earnings growth of 116 percent on the back of export competitiveness and efficient operations.

While the banking sector has experienced the relative stability of the exchange rate throughout the year, it has significantly reduced the scale of foreign currency revaluation gains across the sector, compared to the outsized windfalls recorded in 2024FY, when the sharp Naira depreciation boosted non-interest income.

Mixed fortunes were seen across this sector. Zenith Bank posted a profit of N764 billion in 9M’25, compared with N827 billion in the same period of 2024, while UBA maintained steady earnings at N537 billion. GTCO and Stanbic IBTC similarly recorded strong profit growth, helped by rising transaction income and lower impairment charges.

What stability means going forward

The overall data show that as the naira steadied in 2025, corporate Nigeria began to regain balance after years of volatility-induced distortions. Companies’ profit margins are improving, cost management is firmer, financing plans are clearer, and companies yet to resume dividend payments will do so.

MTN Nigeria Communications Plc has rekindled investor confidence with the announcement of a N5 interim dividend payout, marking a major comeback after a challenging financial period that saw the telecom giant suspend dividends in 2022.

Adebanjo, CardinalStone analysts said, “If you look at MTN’s books, for instance, they’ve been able to recover their negative equity position. Companies that have negative equity right now, once their retained earnings continue to grow, and they recover that position, we should see them return to dividend payments going into next year, especially for consumer goods firms.”

He added, “Unless we see a recurrence of what happened in 2023 and 2024 with currency volatility, which I doubt, I think these improvements will be sustainable for the foreseeable future.” (BusinessDay)

Update news