The unprecedented disruptions generated by the COVID-19 pandemic exposed significant vulnerabilities in global and domestic supply chains and reinforced the strategic importance of effective outsourcing risk management. Manufacturing firms in emerging economies such as Nigeria were particularly affected by supplier interruptions, transportation restrictions, input shortages, operational shutdowns, demand volatility, and uncertainty surrounding outsourced activities. This study examined the relationship between outsourcing risk management and supply chain resilience in the Nigerian manufacturing sector, drawing lessons from firms’ experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, the study assessed the effects of outsourcing risk identification, risk mitigation, risk monitoring, and contingency planning on supply chain agility, robustness, recovery capability, and overall supply chain resilience. The study adopted a quantitative cross-sectional research design using a dataset of 340 observations drawn from manufacturing firms of different sizes and industrial sectors. Outsourcing risk management was operationalised through four dimensions: risk identification, risk mitigation, risk monitoring, and contingency planning, while supply chain resilience was measured through agility, robustness, recovery capability, and an overall resilience index. Firm size, sector, and level of COVID-19 impact were incorporated into the analytical framework. The results show a consistently positive relationship between outsourcing risk-management capability and supply chain resilience. Risk monitoring and contingency planning display exact positive linear relationships with the resilience measures in the supplied dataset, while risk identification and mitigation show positive construct-level patterns. The findings underscore the need for Nigerian manufacturing firms to move beyond cost-driven outsourcing toward resilience-oriented supplier governance incorporating systematic supplier assessment, diversified sourcing, continuous risk monitoring, contingency protocols, business continuity planning, and collaborative relationships with strategic suppliers. The study concludes that outsourcing risk management constitutes an important organizational capability for developing resilient manufacturing supply chains, while the deterministic structure of several measures requires caution in interpreting the magnitude of individual effects.