China, United States of America, India, Netherlands and Belgium have been listed as Nigeria’s major import trading partners, showing that most of the goods imported into Nigeria came from the above listed countries in the third quarter of 2019, says the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) third quarter report.
According to NBS, Nigeria’s imports, by country of origin, shows 31.34 percent of goods valued at over N1, 221 trillion were imported mainly from China in the period under review.
NBS further stated that Nigeria also imported 11.35 percent of goods from the United States worth N442.4 billion while 7.49 percent of goods worth N292 billion were imported from India within the period under review.
Also, the report has it that 6.80 percent of goods worth over N265.2 billion were imported from the Netherlands and about 3.98 percent of goods valued at N155.2 billion were imported into Nigeria from Belgium in the third quarter of 2019.
“Nigeria’s imports stood at N3, 899 trillion in the third quarter of 2019, representing a decrease of 2.70 percent over the value recorded in the preceding quarter two of 2019 and 7.47 percent over the corresponding quarter of 2018,” NBS stated.
The report attributed the decline in import value to decrease in the values of mineral fuel, which fell by N381.9 billion or 41.98 percent and crude inedible materials that stood at N15.95 billion or 24.44 percent in quarter under review compare to their values in quarter two.
“In terms of import by continent, during the same quarter, Nigeria imported goods mainly from Asia, and valued at N1,998 trillion or 51.3 percent of total imports. Other major imports originated from Europe, valued at N1,194 trillion or 30.6 percent while imports from the Americas and Africa amounted to N576.7 billion or 14.8 percent and N106.0 billion or 2.7 percent respectively,” NBS stated.
Also, NBS reported that import from Oceania stood at N23.8 billion equaling 0.6 percent of total imports while goods valued at N19.1 billion originated from ECOWAS.
“Imports of used vehicles worth N120.6 billion were brought into the country from the United States, N6.3 billion worth of vehicles were brought in from Italy, N4.3 billion vehicles came from Belgium, N3.9 billion vehicles came from Germany and N3.9 billion from Canada. Other imported products were motorcycles from India and China, worth N81.8 billion and N35.7 billion respectively,” NBS said.
According to the report, vaccines for human medicine, worth N37.8 billion and N37.6 billion were imported from Denmark and Singapore respectively, while machines for reception and chassis fitted with engines for assembly plants, respectively worth N50.36 billion and N50.42 billion were also imported from China during the period under review.
However, cane sugar worth N31.95 billion was imported from Brazil. Other products imported were preparations for infant use valued at N12.5 billion, N7.8 billion and N1.7 billion imported from China, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands respectively.
“In addition, milk preparations containing vegetable fats worth N8.8 billion, N3.3 billion, N2.1 billion and N1.0 billion were imported from Ireland, Australia, Malaysia and the Netherlands respectively. During the quarter, mixtures of odoriferous substance valued at N10.2billion were also imported from Ireland,” NBS added.
