…Mainstream brands capture 62% of sales
Nigeria’s fast-moving consumer goods market grew 15 percent in value this year as shoppers bought more often and in larger quantities despite rising cost of living, NielsenIQ (NIQ, a consumer intelligence company, has said.
Volumes rose 4.8 percent and transactions climbed 7.1 percent, NIQ said at its fourth annual Nigeria C-Suite Breakfast Conference in Nigeria’s commercial capital.
The figures suggest growth is coming more from consumer participation than from price increases alone, said Joyce Nwachukwu, NIQ’s commercial director for West Africa.
The gap between value and volume growth implies that higher prices still did much of the lifting. Still, the rise in purchases points to broader demand in an economy where living standards have fallen sharply.
Uchenna Uzo, deputy vice chancellor (academic) at Pan-Atlantic University, told the conference that fuel prices have risen by about 450 percent and consumer purchasing power has dropped by more than 25 percent over the past three years.
Data from NIQ showed About 39 percent of Nigerians said they were financially better off than a year ago, down from 41 percent in 2025.
Another 36.1 percent said they were worse off, up slightly from 35.8 percent. Cost of living was the biggest challenge for 74 percent of respondents. Some 58 percent cited rising fuel prices, almost double last year’s 29 percent. Concern about the economic slowdown eased to 62 percent from 66 percent.
“Leading the next wave doesn’t just happen by chance; it’s a gradual process,” Nwachukwu said.
Shoppers appear to be sticking with brands they trust. Mainstream brands account for 62 percent of FMCG value sales, and brand switching has fallen to 49 percent from 68 percent in 2024.
NIQ said consumers still care about affordability but are weighing it against quality, convenience, functionality and trust.
Spending patterns are splitting. Oluwatosin Onayemi, senior manager for retail measurement services in West Africa at NIQ, said households are protecting essential purchases while becoming choosier about discretionary ones.
Categories that combine affordability, accessibility and innovation are outperforming. Biscuits stood out, with value growth of 49.6 percent.
Online shopping is also gaining ground. About 31 percent of Nigerians now shop online, led by Gen Z, Onayemi said. Millennials are expected to become the country’s highest-spending generation in the coming years. Traditional trade remains the backbone of retail, though, so companies will need strategies that cover both online and offline channels.
That reliance on informal commerce was a recurring theme. Uzo said roughly 70 percent of informal business owners depend on borrowed capital, which he described as a sign of both the sector’s resilience and its fragility. He also pointed to the growing influence of market associations, trust and grassroots engagement on buying decisions and on how goods reach shoppers.
“We either innovate or stay and face the consequences,” Uzo said. He urged companies to rethink traditional growth models and work more closely with partners along the value chain.
David Emeh, NIQ’s senior manager for business development in West Africa, argued that blanket strategies no longer work. Demand differs by region, city, channel and consumer segment, he said, so companies need local detail to find growth.
“The question is no longer about data. The question is how effectively organizations use it,” Emeh said.
He demonstrated NIQ Optiq, the company’s AI-enabled analytics platform, which is designed to help businesses spot pockets of growth and act on them faster.
The conference, themed “Leading the Next Wave,” follows earlier NIQ gatherings that tracked the market’s mood. The 2023 edition dealt with uncertainty, 2024 with the squeeze on consumer spending, and 2025 with the first signs of recovery.
Faith Wanderi, NIQ’s managing director for East and West Africa, said the focus has now shifted from recovery to leadership.
“Success will increasingly depend on an organization’s ability to anticipate shifts, act on insights, and transform emerging opportunities into sustained competitive advantage,” she said.
