Nigeria’s Trade posts a record quarterly profit of N8.24tn, says NBS

The National Bureau of Statistics announced that it made a record in profit N8.24tn for the first three months of 2019, with trade rising by 2.5% from N8.04tn in Q4 of last year to N8.24tn in the first quarter of this year.

The NBS said this in its Foreign Trade in Goods Statistics for Q1 of 2019 released on its website today.

Giving a breakdown of the N8.24tn figure, the report stated that the country recorded total export of N4.53tn while import trade was put at N3.7tn.

According to the report, the development resulted into a positive trade balance of N831.6bn during the first quarter.

The report reads in part, “In the first quarter of 2019, Nigeria’s total exports was recorded at N4.53tn, which represents a 1.78 per cent rise compared to the fourth quarter of 2018 but a 3.9 per cent fall compared to the first quarter of 2018.

It further explained that the value of total imports increased to N3.7tn representing an increase of 3.39 per cent relative to Q4 2018 and 29.84 per cent compared with Q1 2018.

The trade balance remained positive at N831.6bn in Q1 2019, boosted by increase in both exports and imports which helped total trade increase to N8,239.04 billion.

This figure is 2.50 per cent higher compared to Q4, 2018 and 7.52 per cent higher relative to the corresponding quarter in 2018.”

The report further stated that the country’s exports trade was dominated by crude oil exports, which contributed N3.37tn or 74.45 per cent to the value of total exports in the first quarter.

Further analysis of the report showed that Nigeria exported mainly mineral products which amounted to 87.1 let cent of the total value of exports.

This was followed by vehicles, aircraft and parts; prepared foodstuffs, beverages, spirits; and vegetable products which respectively accounted for N418bn or 9.22 per cent, N55.4bn or 1.2 per cent cent and N49.0bn or 1.1 per cent of the total export.

During the first quarter, the NBS report stated that Nigeria’s exports to Europe, Asia and Africa amounted to N1.83tn.

This is about 40.43 per cent of total exports.

By country of destination, it added that Nigeria exported goods mainly to India, Spain, Netherlands, South Africa and France, valued at N745.0bn, N487.1bn, N405.4bn, N325.5bn and N302.3bn respectively.

In furtherance to the report, Nigeria exported goods worth N405.8bn or 8.95 per cent to the Americas and N34.5bn or 0.76 per cent to Oceania within Africa, it said that Nigeria exported goods valued at N300bn to ECOWAS member states.

This is about 32.08 per cent of total merchandise exports to Africa.