A country famous for exporting mainly oil, Nigeria’s trade has long been subject to the vagaries of the international price of crude and the political and criminal turbulence in its volatile Niger Delta region. More than 95 per cent of its export earnings are from oil and gas, and the country has struggled against tough competition from abroad to broaden its export capability.

Like many developing countries, a big part of its strategy has been the use of “free trade zones” where normal tax, labour and regulatory rules are suspended. In Nigeria’s case, those zones often play a role in facilitating imports as well as promoting exports, but in doing so they can also run into problems with the government’s traditional heavy-handed intervention in trade.