France’s stock of foreign direct investment in Nigeria reached €8.1 billion in 2025 and bilateral trade reached $4.7 billion, Laurent Favier, France’s consul general in Lagos, told BusinessDay ahead of the 2026 French Week in Lagos. More than 100 French companies operate in Nigeria across pharmaceuticals, agriculture, insurance, logistics, transport, infrastructure and hospitality, employing about 14,000 people directly. Favier described Nigeria as France’s leading trading partner in sub-Saharan Africa.
The infrastructure items in the survey are concrete. Agreements for the Gateway Deep Sea Port and the adjoining Ogun State Blue Marine Special Economic Zone were advanced in Paris in September 2026 in the presence of President Bola Tinubu. In Lagos, the Omi Eko project will introduce 75 electric ferries, upgrade 25 terminals and establish 15 routes covering 140 kilometres of waterways, with support from the French Development Agency alongside the European Union and the European Investment Bank. At Lekki Deep Sea Port, which has a 14 metre draft and annual capacity of 2.5 million TEU, CMA CGM has agreed to operate the container terminal. In energy, the chamber pointed to TotalEnergies’ 2024 final investment decision with NNPC on the Ubeta gas field, which will supply Nigeria LNG’s Train 7 project.
The newer flow is consumer-facing. Carrefour and Accor are expanding their Nigerian presence, and Canal+ has strengthened its entertainment position through its acquisition strategy involving MultiChoice. Traffic runs both ways: Nigerian agribusinesses JR Farms and Babafood have set up operations in France covering coffee production, animal feed and cassava processing, Flour Mills of Nigeria is exploring a French presence, and Access Bank has opened a French Desk in Paris while Zenith Bank, United Bank for Africa and First Bank of Nigeria have established a presence in the country.
Guillaume Niarfeix, president of the Franco-Nigerian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the chamber is working to convert the interest into signed partnerships, and credited federal reforms and ease of doing business measures for giving investors a firmer base. The account is a diplomatic survey rather than a set of new transactions, and it is single sourced, so the project figures should be read as the French mission’s own presentation of the relationship.