Nigeria’s foreign trade rises to N13.3trn Q3 –NBS

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has disclosed that Nigeria’s total foreign trade rose to N13.3 trillion in the third quarter of the year.

This was disclosed on Monday by the Statistician-General of the Federation, Simon Harry, during a press briefing on the Q3 Foreign Trade Report held in Abuja.

According to Harry, the N13.3 trillion trade comprises N8.2 trillion imports and N5.1 trillion exports, resulting in a trade deficit of N3.03 trillion.

The NBS boss stated that total imports expenditure rose by N1.3 trillion from N6.95 trillion recorded in the second quarter of 2021.

He revealed further that the rise in imports was driven majorly by an increase in the importation of commodities such as motor spirits (N1.1 trillion), Gas Oil (N225.6 billion), imported motorcycles and cycles and CKD valued at N116.3 billion from N94.7 billion, respectively.

“Comparing 3 quarter to 2 quarter, 2021, total trade grew by 10.43% from N12,029.64 billion, export trade grew by 1.00% from N5,079.44 billion, import trade also grew by 17.32% from N6,950.21 billion,” Harry said.

The statistician general said crude oil dominated export trade in Q3, as total export of the commodity amounted to N4tn or 78.47 per cent of total export.

According to him, “This was followed by Natural gas, liquefied with N487.49 billion (9.50%), Floating or submersible drilling platforms with N163.70 billion (3.19%) and Urea, whether or not in aqueous solution with N107.17 billion (2.08%). On the other hand, imports were mainly motor spirit valued at N 1,052.5 billion (12.91%), Durum wheat valued at N 315.17billion (3.87%), Gas oil with N225.63 billion (2.77%), Used Vehicles N 185.41 billion (2.27%)”.

He listed Nigeria’s top five export trade partner during the review period as China (N2.4 trillion), India (N710.3 billion), the United States (N599.1 billion), Netherlands (N554.2 billion), and Belgium (N434.1 billion).

“The top five major trading partners in export trade during the 3rd Quarter, 2021 were India with N758.1 billion, Spain with N627.01 billion, Italy with N446.04 billion, France with N363.23 billion and Netherlands with N242.49 billion,” he added.