Four things learnt from Nigeria’s Q3 trade statistics

Nigeria’s latest trade statistics show that total trade grew by 6.8 percent on a quarterly basis and 1.33 percent from last year. Here are some key things you should know.

Tokunbo cars are Nigeria’s second-biggest imports:

After Premium Motor Spirit, otherwise known as petrol, Tokunbo cars were the most imported items into Nigeria in the third quarter of 2019.

Nigeria imported N151.55 billion worth of used cars in the period, which accounted for almost 4 percent of total imports.

Imports of Tokunbo cars were down 15 percent compared to the second quarter when a record high N177 billion worth of cars were imported.

In Q3, used Vehicles worth N120.6 billion were imported from the United States, Italy (N6.3billion), Belgium (N4.3billion), Germany (N3.9 billion) and Canada (N3.9 billion).

Agric exports fall 42% as oil remains king despite diversification efforts: 

The contributions of crude oil to total exports dropped by 15 percent points or N189bn on a quarterly basis, and 10 percent points on a yearly basis to 71 percent of total exports in the third quarter of 2019. This is crude’s lowest export share in over 15 quarters.

However, low exports from sectors like agriculture and manufacturing undermine Nigeria’s diversification goals.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported that agricultural exports decreased by 42.69 percent on a quarter-on-quarter basis and 7.30 percent from the same period last year. Re-exports as a percentage of manufacturing exports rose to 95 percent from 65 percent in the previous quarter. Adjusting for re-exports, manufacturing exports came to 0.8 percent of total exports.

Trade surplus at 5-qtr high:

Non-oil exports from Nigeria rose by the most on record to hit a trillion Naira in Q3 2019, pushing the trade surplus to a five-quarter high.

Trade surplus or net trade is the difference between what a country exports and what it imports.

In the third quarter of 2019, non-oil exports grew 375 percent, the highest since 2014, according to available data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

Non-oil exports hit N1.08trn for the first time on record accounting for 20 percent of total exports and pushing net-exports to N1.39trn, the highest since the second quarter of 2018.

Ghana emerges Nigeria’s biggest export destination in Q3: 

Neighbouring Ghana was Nigeria’s biggest export destination, displacing India from number one spot.

Ghana accounted for 17.18 percent of Nigeria’s total export compared to 14.67 percent by India, due to re-exports of Cable sheaths of iron and submersible drilling platforms.

Total exports to Ghana were valued at N908bn.