Image: Ocean economy/UNCTAD

Global trade expanded by an estimated $300 billion in the first half of 2025, growing at an estimated 1.5% in the first quarter and projections showing 2% growth in the second.

UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) disclosed this in its just released Global Trade Update (July 2025).

Said the report:

Price increases contributed to the overall rise in trade value. Prices for traded goods edged up in the first quarter and likely continued to rise in the second, while trade volumes grew by just 1%.

Developed economies outpaced developing countries in the first quarter of 2025, reversing recent trends that had favoured the Global South. The shift was driven by a 14% surge in United States imports and a 6% jump in European Union exports.

Trade imbalances widened during the last four quarters, with the US posting a larger deficit, while China and the European Union recorded growing surpluses.

The report further said that global trade faces mounting headwinds in the second half of 2025, amid persistent policy uncertainty, geopolitical tensions and signs of slowing global growth.

Oyedele said that the threats began shortly after he announced a clampdown on more than 60 government agencies illegally collecting taxes and levies across the country.

Chairman of Nigeria’s Presidential Committee on Tax Policy and Fiscal Reforms, Taiwo Oyedele, has revealed that he was forced to flee his home and now lives in a secret location under armed police protection after receiving death threats linked to his tax reform efforts.

The Guardian reports that during a live radio interview on Nigeria Info FM, Oyedele said that the threats began shortly after he announced a clampdown on more than 60 government agencies illegally collecting taxes and levies across the country.

“I had to pack out of my house,” he said. “I rented a place in a secret location where I now live. I’m not the kind of person who wants anybody carrying a gun to follow me around, but I had to accept mobile police protection.”

”Oyedele, a former Africa Tax Lead at PwC, has led the drive to simplify and clean up Nigeria’s tax system.

He described the backlash as unexpected but driven by powerful individuals who had turned tax collection into a personal revenue stream.

“These are not small boys and girls,” he said. “They are big people with deep connections and resources. So naturally, they would resist any effort to block those illegal streams.”

Dangote petroleum refinery will construct storage tanks in Namibia to hold at least 1.6 million barrels of petrol and diesel to supply refined fuel to southern Africa.

Reuters reports that the storage tanks would be used to supply petrol and diesel to Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Dangote was also considering supplying fuel to southern Democratic Republic of Congo, the sources said.

It was not immediately clear how much the project would cost, but the second source said construction of the storage tanks would begin shortly in the port city of Walvis Bay.

The move underscores the refinery’s ambition to dominate fuel supply in Africa and beyond, potentially reshaping energy trade flows in the region and boosting access to refined products for southern African nations.