October 6, 2025/CSL Research
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has released its Business Expectations Survey (BES) for August 2025, providing insights into the outlook across key sectors—Industry, Services, and Agriculture. The findings show sustained optimism about Nigeria’s macroeconomic prospects, with the overall business confidence index rising to 28.9 points in August from 21.4 points in July 2025. Looking ahead, businesses anticipate further improvement in sentiment, with confidence levels projected to increase to 37.7 points in September, 53.5 points in November, and 55.9 points by February 2026. These indices represent businesses’ expectations regarding changes in various aspects of their operations in the months ahead. A confidence index above 0.0 signifies positive sentiment toward business activities, while a value below 0.0 indicates a negative outlook.
The August 2025 survey indicated sustained positive sentiment across all sectors regarding short-term business activity, with the Services sector exhibiting the highest level of optimism. Respondent firms also anticipated a stronger Naira, reflecting confidence in the Central Bank of Nigeria’s ongoing measures to improve transparency and stability in the foreign exchange market. Across sectors, businesses expressed optimism about job creation and expansion opportunities. A closer look at sector-specific expectations shows that the non-market Services sector presents the strongest employment prospects, while the Mining & Quarrying and Agriculture sectors are expected to lead in near-term business expansion potential.
Despite the positive outlook, respondents identified several critical challenges affecting business operations in August 2025. The most pressing concerns included insecurity, insufficient power supply, high interest rates, and heavy tax burdens. Other notable constraints were financial difficulties, an unfavourable economic climate, and excessive bank charges. Recent data reinforces the optimistic business sentiment. The CBN’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rose to 51.7 points in August 2025, indicating expansion in business activity across multiple sectors and reflecting steady progress toward economic recovery.
However, structural challenges—particularly insecurity and poor power supply—remain significant risks. Without targeted and effective policy interventions, these issues could undermine Nigeria’s medium-term economic growth objectives.
Click here to download full report: CSL Nigeria Daily – 06 October 2025 – Economy .pdf
