When President Donald Trump signed a last-minute one-year extension of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), he did more than avert a bureaucratic lapse. He bought time—time for African exporters, time for investors, and time for governments that had begun bracing for factory slowdowns and cancelled orders. The extension, which runs retroactively from September 30, 2025, to December 31, 2026, restores duty-free access for thousands of African products into the United States. That matters. For over two decades, AGOA has quietly underwritten export-led growth across sectors such as apparel, automotive components, agriculture, and processed minerals. Yet the brevity of this renewal sends a clear message. Washington has pressed pause, not play. The programme survives, but under sharper political scrutiny and an “America First” lens that suggests future renewals may come with tougher conditions. For Nigeria and its peers, this is a useful reprieve—but also a warning.