Nigeria records increase of 6.5 per cent external trade in 2016 – NBS

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said the value of the total trade at the end of 2016 was N17. 35 billion.

The NBS said that the figure was 6.5 per cent higher than the value recorded in 2015.

The bureau announced this in a report on “Merchandise Trade Intensity Index/Re-exports for fourth quarter’’, released in Abuja.

The report, however, stated that Nigeria’s external trade in the fourth quarter of 2016 was valued at N5.28 billion.

“The export component stood at N2.98 billion while the import component stood at N2.31 billion leading to a trade surplus of N671 billion.

“Trade by sector showed that crude oil exports had the largest share of the total trade, accounting for N2.43 billion or 45.9 per cent trade in fourth quarter.

“The second major contributor to total trade by sector was manufactured goods with N1.17 billion or 22.1 per cent of total trade,’’ it stated.

The report stated that manufactured goods were followed by the non-crude oil products, which was also a major contributor to total trade in the quarter under review.

“The non-crude oil products stood at N1.15 billion or 21.8 per cent while Agricultural goods accounted for N212.7 billion or 4 per cent.

“Raw material goods accounted for N309 billion or 5.9 per cent and Solid mineral goods stood at N13.1billion or 0.3 per cent of total trade in the quarter.’’

The report stated that Nigeria’s export intensity in the months of October, November and December 2016 was the highest for South Africa with export intensities of 8.9, 7.3 and 4.1, respectively.

It stated that export intensity in the fourth quarter was also intense with India with export intensities of 5.8, 5.8 and 1.7 for the last three months of 2016.

“Spain and Netherlands also had high export intensities with export intensities of 4.8, 2.9 and 2.0 for Spain and 2.2, 1.5 and 2.2 for the Netherlands.

“Although United States was one of Nigeria’s major trading partners, its export intensity was low with 0.6, 0.6 and 0.2 for the last three months of 2016.’’

Meanwhile, the report stated that Nigeria imported mainly from China with total imports of N404.1billion or 17.5 per cent of total imports.

It stated that China was followed by Belgium with N356.46 billion or 15 per cent while import trade with Netherlands which was the third highest was valued at N230 billion or 10 per cent.

“The remaining trading partners contributed relatively lower proportion of the total import trade.

“United States accounted for N205.6 billion or 8.9 per cent while India accounted for N113.9 billion or 4.9 per cent,’’ the report stated.