Nigeria’s total external merchandise trade recorded a N3.02 trillion deficit in the third quarter of the year (Q3 2021) as imports significantly outweighed exports, leading to unfavourable trade balance, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said yesterday.
However, total foreign trade stood at N13.28 trillion, indicating an increase of 10.43 per cent compared to N12.03 trillion in Q2.
According to the Foreign Trade in Goods Statistics (Q3 2021), which was posted on the NBS website, imports value stood at N8. 15 trillion in Q3, an increase of 17.32 per cent compared to N6.95 trillion in the preceding quarter.
On the other hand, total exports stood at N5.13 trillion in Q3, representing an increase of about 1 per cent compared to N5.08 trillion in Q2.
According to the NBS, the top five traded export products during the review period included petroleum oil and oils obtained from bituminious minerals and crude all valued at N4.02 trillion or 78.48 per cent of total export.
Others are natural and liquefied gas which accounted for N487.49 billion or 9.50 per cent of export; floating or submersible drilling or production platforms valued at N163.70 billion or 23.19 per cent of export; urea, whether or not in aqueous solution valued at N107.17 billion or 2.09 per cent and other petroleum gases etc in gaseous state valued at N40.47 billion or 0.79 per cent of total export.
Similarly, the country’s top traded import products included motor spirit ordinary which gulped N1.05 trillion or 12.91 per cent of imports; durum wheat (not in seeds) N315.17 billion or 3.87 per cent; gas oil N225.63 billion or 2.77 per cent; used vehicles, with diesel or semi-diesel engine of cylinder capacity less than 2500cc, N185.41 billion or 2.27 per cent and cane sugar meant for sugar refinery valued at N135.37 billion or 1.66 per cent of imports.
According to the breakdown of export trade, crude oil accounted for N4.02 trillion while the non-crude oil was N1.10 trillion out of which non-oil exports component was N546.27 billion.
India is the country’s major trade partner, accounting for N784.14 billion or 14.8 per cent of total exports from Nigeria while Spain accounted for N627.01 billion or 12.2 per cent of exports. Italy was third major trading partner with N446.04 billion or 8.7 per cent.
The total value of trade in agricultural goods in Q3 stood at N868.5 billion, the export component amounting to N79.4 billion and agricultural goods imports gulped N789.1 billion.
Agricultural goods exports value was 5.9 per cent lower than Q2 but 31 per cent higher than Q3 2020, the NBS added.
On the other hand, the value of imported agricultural goods was 21.01 per cent higher than the value recorded in Q2 and 56.74 per cent higher than Q3 2020.
During the quarter, agricultural goods exports were driven by good fermented Nigerian cocoa beans worth N27.2 billion, of which N9.7 billion, N6.18 billion and N5.7 billion were exported to Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Netherlands respectively.
The total value of trade in manufactured goods stood at N5.19 trillion in Q3 with the export component valued at N295.03billion while the import component valued at N4.90 trillion.
The solid minerals trade accounted for N72.4 billion, the export component valued at N18.3 billion and import at N54.1 billion.
The report also showed that the leading port of operation during Q3 was the Apapa Port with goods worth N4.66 trillion exiting the country through the port. The PortHarcourt (3) recorded N307.38 billion in shipment to other partner countries while the Tin can Island port was exited goods worth N103.77 billion.
