Nigerian Firms Harness Pricing Power to Defy Economic Headwinds and Boost Earnings

Firms that have strong pricing power which allows them to increase prices along with their growing costs have helped lift Nigeria corporate profit, led by telecoms, consumer and industrial goods.

With the third quarter (Q3) earnings season coming to an end, the combined profit of the NGX 30 firms (list of the most liquid and capitalised firms) spiked by 30.74 percent to N8.43 trillion as at September 2025 from N4.49 trillion as at September 2024, according to data gathered by MoneyCentral.

This figure shows it is the fourth successive year of earnings growth even amid a challenging environment.

“Companies with strong market positions can also be excellent inflation hedges. Established tech giants often have pricing power and can increase their service fees as their costs rise. Additionally, many technology solutions help other businesses become more efficient, making them valuable even during challenging economic times,” said analysts at CSL Stock Brokers Limited.

Consumer goods firms and the telecommunications giants are the star performers on the index with the majority of them returning back to the path of profitability, whereas banks’ profit slumped on the back of the disappearance in foreign exchange (FX) revaluation gains and a slowdown in income from investment securities as the Apex bank gradually signals a dovish tone.

Of course, the stocks of consumer products firms, technology companies, and industrial goods who easily pass on increased costs to the consumers without significantly reducing demand tend to do well even amid rising inflation.

The country’s September 2025 headline inflation rate eased to 18.02 percent relative to the August 2025 inflation rate of 20.12 percent, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria reduced the country’s benchmark interest rate to 27 per cent, the first cut in 2025 after three consecutive pauses.

The yield on Nigeria 10 year bond yield held steady at 15.58 percent on November 6, 2025. Over the past month, the yield has fallen by 0.21 points and is 5.31 points lower than a year ago, according to over-the-counter interbank yield quotes for this government bond maturity.

Big names on the index such as Dangote Sugar, Nigerian Breweries, BUA Foods, International Breweries, Nascon Allied, Nestle Nigeria, collectively posted profit after tax (PAT) of N643.82 billion in the first nine months of 2025, from a combined loss of 420.59 billion as at September 2024, according to data gathered by MoneyCentral.

MTN Nigeria and Airtel Africa, the two dominant players in the telecom industry collectively posted a combined net income of N1.24 trillion as at September 2025, from a loss of N404.32 billion. Both firms benefited from the 50 percent hike that was approved by the regulator while spending on capital expenditure has validated the growth in subscriber base.

The market has been rewarding these firms as their shares have been rising since the start of the year, outperforming the NGXASI index.

BUA Foods has a year to date (YTD) return of (+66.87 percent); Cadbury, (+190.93 percent); Champions Breweries, (+241.21 percent); Dangote Sugar, (+71.08 percent); Guinness Nigeria (+151.53 percent); International Breweries, (+116.22 percent); Nascon Allied Industries, (+215.90 percent); Nestle Nigeria, (+97.71 percent), and Unilever, (+123.67 percent).

MTN and Airtel Africa both have YTD return of 138.50 percent and 5.26 percent respectively.

The profit of Dangote Cement, BUA Cement, and Lafarge Africa, who are the largest producers of the building materials collectively surged by 219.70 percent to N1.29 trillion as at September 2025.

Dangote Cement has a YTD return of (37.84 percent); Lafarge Africa, (87.28 percent), and 93.55 percent.

Seplat Energy Plc and Oando Plc combined profit after tax (PAT)  surged by 169.95 percent to N347.94 billion as at September 2025 from N129.07 billion the previous year.

Okomu and Presco, the largest oil palm producers, saw their combined profit after tax spike by 113.62 percent to N171.18 billion, as these firms took advantage of an increase in global crude palm oil to implement price hike in the domestic market

It is important to note that the NGX-30 banks result fell year-on-year as the combined net income of the lenders dipped by 3.58 percent to N4.08 trillion as at September 2025.

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