The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) late Wednesday released Nigeria’s total merchandise trade for Q2-2024 which shows a fall of 3.7% to N31,892.46 billion, representing a decrease of 3.76% over the value recorded in the preceding quarter and a rise of 150.39% compared to the value recorded in the corresponding period of 2023.
Exports, which accounted for 60.89% of total trade, rose 1.31% to N19,418.93 billion compared to N19,167.36 billion in Q1-2024 and a 201.76% rise compared to N6,435.13 billion in Q2 2023.
The top trading export partners were Spain, the United States of America, France, India, and The Netherlands. The most exported commodities included crude oil, liquefied natural gas, and other petroleum gases in a gaseous state, as well as superior-quality cocoa beans and urea.
Crude oil export was valued at N14,559.56 billion representing 74.98% of total exports while the value of non-crude oil exports stood at N4,859.37 billion accounting for 25.02% of total exports; of which non-oil products contributed N1,944.25 billion or 10.01% of total exports in the same period.
Imports were valued at N12,473.53 billion accounting for 39.11% of total trade. Using the Standard International Trade Classification, the top-ranked group import was “mineral fuels” with N4,415.19 billion representing 35.40% of total imports, this was followed by “machinery and transport equipment” with N2,878.69 billion (23.08% of total imports) and “Chemicals & related products” with N1,886.50 billion (15.12% of total imports).
Nigeria imported goods mainly from Asia, valued at N5,580.60 billion representing 44.74% of total imports.
This was followed by imports from Europe with N4,934.03 billion or 39.56%, America with N1,337.28 billion or 10.72%, and Africa with N555.48 billion or 4.45%; of which imports from ECOWAS countries amounted to N66.37 billion or 1.33% of total imports, while imports from Oceania stood at with N66.14 billion or 0.53% in the second quarter of 2024.