Nigeria’s foreign trade hits N13.3tr — NBS

Nigeria’s total merchandise trade rose to N13.3 trillion in the third quarter of this year.

The Statistician-General of the Federation, Simon Harry, who disclosed this at a media briefing on the “Foreign Trade in Goods Statistics for Quarter Three, 2021” held on Monday in Abuja, said the figure was 10.43 percent higher than the N12.02 trillion recorded in the second quarter of this year.

He said export trade value accounted for N5.1 trillion of the total sum while import trade was valued at N8.1 trillion, resulting in a negative trade balance of N3.02 trillion.

This, according to him, was due to an increase in import of Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) from N782.46 billion to N1.05 trillion and Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) from N152.53 billion to N225.63 billion, and other items.

He said: “Comparing third quarter to second quarter, total trade grew by 10.43 percent from N12.02 trillion, export trade grew by one percent from N5.07 trillion.

READ ALSO: Nigeria’s economic growth slows to 4.03% in Q3 -NBS

“Import trade also grew by 17.32 percent from N6.95 trillion, while trade balance recorded a deficit of 61.62 percent from N1.87 trillion in quarter two depicting a decline.”

Harry, who is also the Head of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), said that in terms of exports, Nigerian export trade was mainly dominated by crude oil which accounted for N4.02 trillion (78.47 percent) of total export in the third quarter.

He added:“This was followed by natural gas with N487.49 billion (9.50 percent), floating or submersible drilling platforms with N163.70 billion (3.19 percent), and Urea N107.17 billion (2.08 percent).

“On the other hand, imports were mainly petrol valued at N1.05 trillion (12.91 percent), durum wheat valued at N315.17 billion (3.87 percent), gas oil N225.63 billion (2.77 percent), and used vehicles N185.41 billion (2.27 percent).

“Nigeria’s five major trading partners in export trade during the period under review were India (N758.1 billion), Spain (N627.01 billion), Italy (N446.04 billion), France (N363.23 billion) and Netherlands (N242.49 billion).

Similarly, the top import trading partners were China (N2.44 trillion), India (N710.35 billion), the United States (N599.12 billion), the Netherlands (N554.23 billion), and Belgium (N434.12 billion).”

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