The Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA) has announced an unprecedented revenue surge at the Kano Free Trade Zone, marking one of the strongest performances in the zone’s history and signalling a turning point in Nigeria’s push toward non-oil industrialisation.
Olufemi Ogunyemi, managing director of the agency, while, speaking at the Kano Free Trade Zone Investors’ Forum, revealed that the hub generated over N18 billion between January and October 2025, already outperforming its entire 2024 earnings.
Ogunyemi, who was represented by Richard Bassey, Head of the Zone, noted that beyond NEPZA’s own revenue, the zone recorded an even more dramatic rise in Customs-generated income.
He said that the Nigeria Customs Service had posted N17 billion so far from its operations in zone in the year, adding that the revenue inflow is agency was up N2 billion when compared with the corresponding period last year—an over eightfold jump that officials say reflects intensified production and export activity.
Bassey attributed the remarkable growth to a coordinated regulatory model that has brought agencies such as Customs, Immigration, SON, NAFDAC and NESREA into closer alignment with investors from project inception.
He said this hands-on approach—where regulators intervene as early as the land-allocation stage—has reduced compliance breaches and accelerated factory take-off timelines.
“The volume of investment has continued to rise, and these earnings demonstrate improved production capacity and more efficient operations. The achievements reaffirm the zone’s potential as a major driver of non-oil industrialisation and export-led growth”, he explained.
The zone, he added, is now attracting more dollar-denominated investments, validating the federal government’s long-term strategy to shift Nigeria away from crude-oil dependence toward manufacturing and export competitiveness.
Also, speaking on the regulatory scrutiny within the zone at the event, Kasim Ibrahim, Kano state coordinator of NAFDAC, warned that the zone’s rapid expansion must not come at the expense of quality, and cautioned that substandard exports could jeopardize Nigeria’s hard-won WHO Maturity Level 3 ranking.
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Ibrahim disclosed that NAFDAC is strengthening surveillance, including more frequent and even unannounced inspections, as part of measures to enforce good manufacturing practices and preserve Nigeria’s global regulatory credibility.
With revenue records broken and investor interest accelerating, NEPZA is appealing to more local and international manufacturers to take advantage of what it describes as one of Nigeria’s most stable and investor-friendly business environments.
“The Free Zone is the place to be—where investment dreams become reality,” Bassey said.
