Nigeria’s foreign trade deficit narrowed by N1.87 trillion in the second quarter (Q2), representing 110.9 per cent, compared with the first quarter on account of an increase in the value of oil export.
This is according to foreign trade data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The data showed that the value of trade for the quarter stood at N12.03 trillion with exports accounting for 42.2 per cent or N5.08 trillion, showing a 75 per cent increase in export value from the N2.91 billion recorded the previous quarter (Q1).
The improvement was due to sharp increase in crude export which rose by 111.3 per cent, from N1.93 trillion posted in Q1 to 4.08 trillion.
The NBS data also revealed that oil sales accounted for 80.3 per cent of the country’s exports, narrowing the non-oil margin to less than 20 per cent, even though moderate growth was recorded in key non-oil areas such as solid minerals exports which value increased by 60.1 per cent quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) and 852.9 per cent year-on-year (YoY) while raw material exports also grew by 50 per cent QoQ and 326.6 per cent YoY.
Agricultural commodity exports also recorded a significant improvement whereas the value of manufactured good exports dipped by 15.5 per cent QoQ and 16.7 per cent YoY.
In trading, during Q2 2021, the total merchandise trade stood at N12.029 trillion representing a 23.28 per cent increase over the value N9.757 trillion recorded in Q1, 2021 and 88.71 per cent increase compared to Q2, 2020, an increase attributed to the sharp increase in export value during the quarter under review.
The report showed that India remained Nigeria’s top export trading partner with an 18.7 per cent share of the volume of goods exported in the period, followed by Spain, Canada, the Netherlands, and the United States.
China led import-trading with near control of the total import volumes followed by India and the Netherlands, with 8.2 and 8.2 per cent, while America and Russia had 7.6 and 4.09 per cent share to take the fourth and fifth position respectively.
