Nigeria’s export trade drops by 29.7% in 2016 Q2

Total export trade from Nigeria declined on average of 26.7 per cent per month by year-on-year statistics till the end of June 2016, according to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

This has seen the trade export recording 29.4 per cent cumulative reduction by the end of the second quarter of 2016.

The report, made available to Ripples Nigeria, shows the slump in trade is mainly due to a 24.2 per cent drop in sales of mineral products, which accounted for 92.7 percent of total exports, namely oil within the period.

Nigeria’s export for the same period in 2015 recorded a slight decline of 18.5 per cent, when compared with that of 2014 with stability rate exports of 10 per cent, comparable to those from neignbouring countries of Benin, Ghana and Ivory Coast.

WTO says Nigeria exported goods mainly to India, United States, Spain, Netherlands and South Africa.

The exports of goods in the period stood at 367.014.16 million average between 1981 until 2016, reaching an all time high of 2,648,881.76 million average, in December of 2011.

Read also: Nigerians to pay 15% more for bread, biscuits

But on its import trade, the country recorded an increase of 24.8 per cent year-on-year in the same period, which experts attributed to the balance in trade with other countries that have been trailing Nigeria in the past years.

For instance, Nigeria recorded 756,875.1 million average of imports in June of 2016, with the second quarter of the year’s imports rising to 21.3 per cent.

More items that made up the records were purchases for food items, machinery and appliances which accounted for 34.9 per cent of total imports, and which jumped to 105.2 per cent.

Imports in Nigeria averaged 170,327.92 million average, from 1981 until 2016, reaching an all time high of 1,554,732.90 millions in March of 2011.

But the report says towards the end of the second quarter, the much expected growth in the import trade suffered some set back due mainly to scarcity of foreign currency, especially dollars in Nigeria which the government is yet to find solutions to.

By Emma Eke….

RipplesNigeria …without borders, without fears

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