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How much of Nigeria’s trade passes through the Strait of Gibraltar?

In 2024, an estimated $13.7 billion of Nigeria’s trade passed through the Strait of Gibraltar, 13.4% of its seaborne trade. That is $10 billion of exports and $3.7 billion of imports. The partners with the most trade through it are Spain, Italy and France.

Summary

Estimated value
$13.7billion
Of its seaborne trade
13.4%
Exports
$10billion
Imports
$3.7billion

Trend

Estimated value per year

Nigeria’s estimated trade through the Strait of Gibraltar in 2024 was about the same as in 2019

Value in USD billions

  • Nigeria 13.7

Source: CEPII BACI

Show the numbers
YearEstimated valueOf its seaborne trade
1995$2.1 billion12.6%
1996$3.2 billion13.7%
1997$3.1 billion13.5%
1998$2.4 billion13.4%
1999$2.9 billion14.4%
2000$3.8 billion13.3%
2001$4.5 billion14.9%
2002$3.8 billion13.7%
2003$4.5 billion12.3%
2004$4.8 billion10.3%
2005$6.7 billion11%
2006$9.4 billion11.1%
2007$9.5 billion8.8%
2008$13.9 billion10.6%
2009$10.2 billion11.4%
2010$11.5 billion9.1%
2011$18.4 billion11.2%
2012$16.6 billion11.3%
2013$15.5 billion11.1%
2014$18.8 billion12.9%
2015$10.6 billion11.6%
2016$7.8 billion11.6%
2017$10.2 billion12.7%
2018$12.4 billion12.4%
2019$13.6 billion13.4%
2020$10.8 billion12.4%
2021$14.1 billion13.5%
2022$16.5 billion12.9%
2023$16.2 billion14.9%
2024$13.7 billion13.4%

Partners whose trade crosses it

Estimated value of its trade with each partner that crosses the chokepoint; the percentage is the share of all its trade through the chokepoint, not of the pair’s trade.

  1. Nigeria–Spain$5.2 billion · 38.2%
  2. Nigeria–Italy$2.4 billion · 17.7%
  3. Nigeria–France$2.1 billion · 15.3%
  4. Nigeria–Turkey$1.1 billion · 7.7%
  5. Nigeria–Malta$802 million · 5.8%
  6. Nigeria–Saudi Arabia$436 million · 3.2%
  7. Nigeria–Egypt$369 million · 2.7%
  8. Nigeria–Azerbaijan$323 million · 2.4%
  9. Nigeria–Croatia$272 million · 2%
  10. Nigeria–Greece$237 million · 1.7%

What crosses it

The products with the highest estimated value in 2024, with their share of the total through the chokepoint.

  1. Crude petroleum$8.2 billion · 59.5%
  2. Refined petroleum$1.3 billion · 9.7%
  3. Natural gas and LPG$1 billion · 7.3%
  4. Dredgers and floating cranes$382 million · 2.8%
  5. Military weapons$322 million · 2.4%
  6. Polypropylene$142 million · 1%
  7. Cocoa beans$124 million · 0.9%
  8. Wheat$115 million · 0.84%
  9. Polyethylene$114 million · 0.83%
  10. Gypsum and plaster$96 million · 0.7%

Reference ports

Lagos (100%)

Each port with the weight it receives from the country’s trade, based on where its GDP is generated and which coast is closest.

Other chokepoints it uses

Sources and method

Sources and licenses

Methodology

We estimate the value crossing each chokepoint from BACI trade that travels by sea according to our mode heuristic, split between each country’s ports by where its GDP is generated and which coast is closest, and routed over our own sea network. It is an estimate, not a count of ships. It covers 99.9% of seaborne trade. The approach follows Verschuur, Lumma and Hall (Nature Communications, 2025). Data up to 2024.

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