When Nigeria took the intrepid step of floating the naira in June 2023, it brought about one of the most turbulent intervals in the country’s financial history.
The forex, which had prolonged been managed beneath a controlled substitute design, used to be at the mercy of market forces. Inner months, the naira plummeted from spherical N460 to a staggering N1,535 per greenback by the end of 2024.
For company Nigeria, this wasn’t factual a forex shift, it used to be a paunchy-blown crisis. Companies at some level of key sectors, severely those heavily uncovered to foreign substitute (FX) risks, were hit laborious.
The financial outcomes were brutal: massive FX losses, skyrocketing hobby prices, and a pointy erosion of shareholder price at some level of the Nigerian Commerce (NGX).
The smash that slash attend deep
Client items companies, which depend heavily on imported raw materials, felt the burn practically immediately. Over the direction of 2023 and 2024, seven main companies including Cadbury Nigeria, Nestlé, Dangote Sugar, Nigerian Breweries, and others recorded blended losses that exceeded N867 billion.
Their foreign substitute exposures proved disastrous, as FX losses soared by over 56% one year-on-one year to attain N1 trillion in 2024. At the identical time, their finance prices more than doubled, hiking from N158 billion in 2023 to N365 billion the next one year.
Among this neighborhood, only BUA Foods and NASCON Allied Industries managed to deal with winning via the storm, a testomony to how common and extreme the damage used to be.
The telecoms and ICT sector didn’t fare any better. MTN Nigeria, one of the country’s most treasured companies, learned itself at the heart of the storm. With foreign-denominated liabilities linked to tower leases and infrastructure contracts, the firm recorded FX losses of N1.67 trillion over two years.
In 2024 by myself, it posted a pre-tax loss of N550 billion. Finance prices ballooned, and by the end of the one year, MTN had a harmful salvage value of over N458 billion, a pleasant reversal for a firm of its stature.
The arrangement it modified
But then, something shifted. By the final quarter of 2024, early indicators of balance began to return to the FX market. The naira started procuring and selling within a more predictable differ, and liquidity stipulations improved.
At the identical time, companies were now not indolent. Across boardrooms, companies aggressively restructured their prices, renegotiated FX responsibilities, and graceful-tuned pricing systems to copy the fresh realities.
By the first quarter of 2025, the outcomes of those efforts began to demonstrate.
The consumer items sector, which had lost a blended N418 billion in Q1 2024, came roaring attend with a neighborhood-huge revenue of on the subject of N290 billion in Q1 2025.
Finest Dangote Sugar remained in the crimson, nonetheless even its losses had vastly narrowed from the earlier one year. The leisure from Cadbury to Nestlé posted solid earnings, buoyed by improved FX stipulations, lower finance prices, and more atmosphere friendly operations.
Where they as soon as reported staggering FX losses, many of these companies were now reporting foreign substitute positive aspects. Combined, the neighborhood posted FX positive aspects of N2.5 billion in Q1 2025 — a pleasant turnaround from the N423 billion in FX losses recorded a one year earlier. Passion prices also dropped sharply, from N170 billion in Q1 2024 to factual N94 billion.
MTN’s fight attend
MTN Nigeria’s recovery used to be powerful more dramatic. Having recorded an enormous loss of over half of a trillion naira in Q1 2024, the firm swung attend to a pre-tax revenue of N202.6 billion in the first quarter of 2025.
FX losses fell enormously from N656 billion to factual over N5 billion. The firm’s fintech and data companies persisted to bring solid revenue, whereas tariffs improved and finance prices grew at a slower stagger.
By the end of Q2 2025, MTN posted another solid consequence, a pre-tax revenue of N419.6 billion, bringing its half of-one year revenue to N622.3 billion. Its retained losses dropped vastly, and shareholders’ funds improved to a sure N42 billion from harmful territory at the end of 2024.
If this momentum holds, MTN could fully wipe out the two years of amassed losses by the end of 2025, a outstanding reversal for a firm as soon as on the brink of harmful fairness.
How the Marketed responded
As the numbers improved, so did investor self belief. MTN Nigeria’s piece tag surged, hitting N480 by the end of July 2025. Its market capitalization soared to N10.1 trillion, making it the most treasured listed firm on the Nigerian Commerce.
Other companies joined the rally. Nigerian Breweries and Worldwide Breweries, both of which had suffered deep losses, re-entered the billion-greenback valuation club. Cadbury emerged as one of the finest-performing shares in July 2025, a clear label that the market had taken perceive of the recovery.
In complete, every main consumer items firm returned to revenue by the end of Q2 2025. Collectively, they posted a pre-tax revenue of about N264 billion.
Foreign substitute losses for the neighborhood had shriveled to factual N896 million. Dangote Sugar, previously a serious laggard, decreased its FX loss from over N208 billion in the prior one year to factual N160 million.
What this recovery plan
The publish-devaluation rebound of Nigerian companies underscores two fundamental classes.
First, whereas macroeconomic shocks love forex devaluation can cripple even the most established companies, the stunning mixture of market reforms, company self-discipline, and pricing energy can power a solid comeback.
Second, forex balance issues. Once the naira learned its footing, companies were in a neighborhood to devise, tag, and restructure with more self belief and investors responded accordingly.
It’s mild early days, and challenges remain. But if the novel trajectory continues, Nigeria’s company giants could now not only get better their lost floor nonetheless emerge stronger, leaner, and more resilient than before.
