Data from the Foreign Trade report of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has revealed that import of manufactured goods cost Nigeria N40.94tn between January 2017 and March 2021.
The country, however, earned only N4.22tn on the export of manufactured goods within the same period.
While manufactured goods dominated the import bill, they contributed little to the country’s export bill.
The report showed that in the review period, all imports value was N66.43tn while that of exports was N67.30tn.
Crude oil was the dominant product on the country’s export list with N49.31tn worth of crude oil compared to manufactured goods that only earned the nation N4.22tn, exported.
Manufactured goods imported by the country included milk and cream in powder specially made for infants, used vehicles, and motorcycles and cycles amongst others and came mainly from Germany, France, United States, the Netherlands, and China, amongst others. Nigeria exported manufactured goods such as vessels and other floating structures, cigarettes containing tobacco, and fermented cocoa beans to the Netherlands, Malaysia, and Indonesia, amongst others.
In 2017, Nigeria spent N4.57tn on manufactured imports, and earned N285.23bn on manufactured exports, manufactured goods import bill rose to N7.19tn, while its export bill was N575.8bn in 2018 and in 2019, manufactured goods import bill was in the excess of N11.94tn, while the export bill was N2.07tn and manufactured trade deficit was in excess of N9tn during the period.
In 2020, the import bill shot to N12.71tn while export bill dropped below N1tn to N960.7bn, with manufactured trade deficit for the period being the highest with a deficit in excess of N11tn.
In Q1, 2021, import bill for manufactured goods was N4.53tn, while export bill was N250.4bn, leaving a manufactured trade deficit of N4.28tn.
