Nigeria suffers $1.02bn revenue loss from non oil exports in 2 quarters 

Despite government promise, Nigeria has been recording a sharp decline in revenue from the non oil sector between the first and second quarters of 2016.

Reports from a nongovernmental organisation, Intelligence Watch, at the weekend said about $1.02billion revenue-loss was suffered by Nigeria from January to end of June this year, though policy makers had factored expected revenue from the sector in the recovery plan of the economy in recession.

The development runs contrary to claim by the government that it is re-focusing Nigeria’s economy by diversifying it from its 95 percent dependence on oil.

Estimated revenue from the non oil sector for the period under review is put at $2.4 billion and there are fears that this may not be actualised given complaints from the real sector and farmers over high interest rate and continuous fall in the value of naira to dollar.

Apart from oil, government had projected that about 25 per cent export from Nigeria will come from solid minerals, 10 from food items, 5 per cent from others  unclassified.

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But the expectation that investors would have turned up for the solid mineral sector is yet to be realised, even as more states are said to be discovering materials believed to be exportable minerals.

Some exporters spoken to said they had projected $5.02bn revenue, but had suffered a decline of $438.82m in the second quarter, while they witnessed $576.97m in the first quarter.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has also confirmed that the decline of revenue from the sector represented a drop of 43.2 per cent when compared to the amount earned within the same period last year.

The decline in earnings from the non-oil products, according to George Ukonifor, a finance expert, is a reflection of the significant drop in economic activities occasioned by the fall in productive capacities of industrialists.

He said, “This is a confirmation of the figure of economic decline the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), had earlier released.

“In that report,decline in expected growth from the non oil sector contributed to the poor overall performance of the economy.”

The NBS report specifically said inflation rose as high as 17.1 per cent from 16.5 per cent; unemployment rate increased to 13.3 per cent from 12.1 per cent; and investment inflows dropped to its lowest level at $647.1m from $710m.

 

By Emma Eke….

 

 

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