Nigeria has recorded a significant improvement in its import trade figures as it saved a whopping N4.2trn owing to a decrease in the importation of manufactured goods in 2012.
The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Olusegun Aganga, disclosed this during the opening ceremony of the ministerial session of the National Council on Industry, Trade and Investment, in Ibadan, on Thursday.
Aganga further revealed that the country saved about N817bn due to a decline in the importation of textile, cement and vegetable oil within the same period, at the meeting with the theme, “Industrialisation as the Driver of Economic Development, Revenue Diversification and Wealth Creation.”
He said, “In terms of trade, we have done very well.” Nigeria’s external trade fell by 4.3 per cent in 2012, from N29trillion to about N28trillion.
“However, the good and exciting news is that the fall was as a result of a sharp decrease in the value of import from about N9.8trillion to about N5.6trillion by the end of 2012. That was a decrease of about 43 per cent in savings of more than N4.2trillion which has gone to the increase in the foreign reserves of our country,” Aganga said.
“The last time that we had such a big fall in import, for a country that is largely import dependent, was in 2008 and that fall was about N1trillion. This shows in real sense, a decreasing over-reliance on import for domestic consumption and a significant savings on our foreign exchange. That is why foreign exchange is going up.”
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Specifically, for vegetable oil production, import fell from about N1 trillion to about N577billion; textile imports fell from about N190 billion to N94 billion , representing about 82 per cent decrease; while cement import fell from about N219billion to about N27billion.
The minister noted that the country also recorded significant improvement in non-oil revenue earnings within the last seven years with the non-oil sector accounting for 30 per cent of the nation’s revenue earnings in 2012, as against 15.5 per cent recorded in 2005.
As part of efforts towards diversifying the nation’s economy, enhance job creation and wealth generation, the minister said the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment had begun the implementation of its Nigerian Industrial Revolution Plan, based on areas where the country had comparative and competitive advantage.
“Nigeria has huge human and natural resources that are yet to be fully translated into wealth for our citizens. For decades, we have relied heavily on the oil and gas sector, which obviously has generated a lot of revenue for the Federal and state governments, but it is capital intensive and less inclusive. But the good news is that today, we have started reversing that process by developing an Industrial Revolution Plan,” he said.
