Nigeria records $1.66 billion trade surplus as total trade merchandise hits $18.62 billion in Q2 2017

shakirudeen taiwo

September 14, 2017 9:34 AM

This is a sign of improved economy driven by high exports.

Nigeria records a trade surplus of N506.5 billion as the total external trade of the country hits N5.70 trillion ($18.62 billion) in the second quarter of 2017.

The figure shows 7.7% improvement over trade value in Q1 2017 and 37.3% higher than the value of trade in Q2 2016.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the total export value stood at N3.10 trillion in Q2 2017. This value represents 3.2% increase over Q1 2017 and 73.48% over the corresponding quarter in 2016.

Oil export dominates the country’s trade in Q2 2017. N2.43 trillion crude oil was exported, a figure which represents 78.39% of the total export and 42.6% of total value of trade within the period. This shows Nigeria still largely depends on revenue from the oil sector to drive economic activities.

More so, improvements of the oil sector’s GDP in this period was explicitly noted as the main factor that pulled the country out of recession.

Solid mineral export also went up within the period.

For import in Q2 2017, N2.595 trillion of goods were imported into the country. This represents 13.51% increase over the Q1 2017 and 9.97% higher than the corresponding quarter in 2016. Also observed is the fact that majority of the country’s import within the period is refined petroleum products (PMS)- 21.42% and Granite – 6.89%.

Nigeria's export destination table shows India, Spain, the United States, Netherlands, and France has preferred destinations. These countries account for 54.1% of total export goods within the period.

Also, China maintained its status as the top importing country to Nigeria. Other countries in the top include Belgium, Netherlands, the United States and Italy. Total imports from these countries account for 51.6% of total import merchandise of Nigeria in Q2 2017.

Level of imported manufactured goods also went down by -18.33% when compared with the corresponding quarter of 2016. This is due to increase in manufacturing activities resulting from Forex market stability and access to raw materials.

It is a result that the value of imported raw-materials in Q2 2017 increased 17.4% when compared with Q1 2017.

shakirudeen taiwo