Total Nigeria merchandising trade stood at N9.12 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2020, representing an 8.9 percent increase relative to the preceding quarter and a 9.9 percent decrease relative to the corresponding quarter of 2019.1 For the fifth consecutive quarter, Nigeria recorded a negative balance of trade with the import component of trade accounting for 65 percent while export component of trade accounted for 35 percent. Crude oil accounted for 78.93 percent of Nigeria’s export while manufactured goods accounted for 64.56 percent of total imports. Nigeria’s major export trading partner is India (17.12 percent) while China (28.28 percent) accounted for most import to Nigeria. Improvements in foreign trade is expected to continue as economic activities in our major trading partner countries increase. However, diversifying the export base to include other goods such as agricultural commodities, textiles, and manufactured goods is pertinent. To achieve this, ensuring standardization of commodities and setting competitive freight charges will unlock the opportunities in external trade.
March 24, 2021
Nigeria Economic Update (Issue 11)
Related
Nigeria Economic Update (Issue 19)
A recent report by the National Bureau of Statistics
(NBS) indicates that Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) at the subnational
level decreased slightly between 2014 and 2015. Specifically, the report shows
that on the average, the IGR of all 36 states declined by 3.6 per cent from
N707.9 billion in 2014 to N683.6 billion in 20157. A further
disaggregation reveals that while IGR in 11 states improved in 2015 compared to
2014, IGR in 24 states were below their 2014 levels. As expected, Lagos state
generated the most IGR during the period. Given that domestic resource mobilization
is the most viable alternative to complement the shortfalls (driven by lower
oil prices) in budgetary allocations to states from the federal government,
state governments need to do more to improve the effectiveness and efficiency
of revenue collection.