India overtakes Netherlands as Nigeria’s major export trade partner

India has overtaken the Netherlands as Nigeria’s major export trading partner in the second quarter of 2018, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The NBS had ranked the Netherlands as the country’s leading export trading partner in Q1 2018, having recorded N963.5 billion in value of exported commodities.

But the latest Foreign Trade Statistics by the bureau showed that 16.19 percent of the Nigeria’s Q2 2018 export trade worth N722.6 billion was moved to India against N457.6 billion worth of commodities exported to the Netherlands in the review quarter.

It said other major export destinations of the country include Spain, South Africa and United States with value of commodities at N426.1 billion or 9.6 percent, N359.8 billion or 8.1 percent and N306.5 billion or 6.9 percent respectively.

“In the reviewing quarter, mineral products accounted for N4,275.3 billion or 95.8% of the total export from Nigeria. This category of export was dominated by Crude Oil exports which contributed N3,728.4 billion or 83.5% of total exports,” it added.

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According to the statistics bureau, the total value of Nigeria’s merchandise trade dropped from N7.21 trillion in Q1, 2018 to N6.57 trillion in the second quarter of 2018.

It said the contraction of total trade in the reviewing quarter was mainly driven by the decline in both
imports and exports.

“The trade balance in Q2, 2018 was a surplus of N2,356.60 billion, which is an 8.36% increase from the
figure in Q1, 2018 (N2,174.60 billion) and a 399.82% increase from the figure in Q1, 2017 (N471.48 billion),” it said.

“Total Imports value was N2,106.7 billion in Q2, 2018, -16.3% lower than Q1, 2018 (N2,518.26 billion) and –
19.9%% lower than Q1, 2017 (N2,631.65 billion),” the NBS said.

The top five import destinations for Nigeria were China, Netherlands, Belgium, India and United States which respectively accounted for N531.6 billion or 25.2 percent, N181 billion or 8.6 percent, N170.9 billion or 8.1 percent, N145.0 billion or 6.9 percent and N141.5 billion or 6.7 percent.

The bureau further said, “Total export value amounted to N4,463.3 billion in Q2, 2018, representing a contraction of -4.9% over Q1, 2018 (N4,692.86 billion) and a growth of 43.8% over Q2, 2017 (N3,102.14 billion).”

 

 

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