Report from the 2024-2026 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) on Monday showed that Nigeria’s capital importation for three consecutive years declined from an annual level of $16.812 billion in 2018 to $5.32 billion in 2022.
As shown in the document, quarterly capital importation also declined by 51.51 percent from $2.187 billion recorded in Q4 2021 to $1.06 billion in Q4 2022.
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According to the report, trade deficits, loans, currency deposits represented the largest component of capital importation in 2022, accounting for 65.17 percent ($691.23 million) of total capital importation in Q4 2022.
This is followed by portfolio investment with 26.89 percent ($285.26 million) and foreign direct investment (FDI) with 7.94 percent ($84.23 million).
The MTEF/FSP report also showed that Nigeria’s foreign trade as of June 2023 stood at N12.74 trillion while the Netherlands, the United States of America, and Indonesia topped the list of Nigeria’s export destinations in 2022.
According to the details, total exports recorded by Nigeria stood at N7.02 trillion while total imports amounted to N5.73 trillion.
According to the document, the Netherlands’ exports stood at N788.85 billion, representing 11.24 percent of total exports; United States of America with N718.63 billion; Indonesia with N550.18 billion; France with N540.73 billion and Spain with N504.45 billion.
Altogether, exports to the top five countries amounted to 44.23 percent of the total value of exports.
Total imports increased by 2.99 percent compared to the value recorded in the first quarter of 2023 (N5.56 trillion) but declined by 10.37 percent when compared to the value recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2022 (N6.39 trillion).
The top five countries of origin of imports to Nigeria in Q2 2023 were China, the United States, Belgium, India and the Netherlands.
With imports valued at N1.27 trillion representing 22.17%) China is the largest country of origin for Nigerian imports.
The value of imports from the top five countries amounted to N3.44 trillion representing a share of 60.05 percent of total imports. Premium motor spirit (petrol) import accounted for 21.5 percent (N1.23 trillion).
Other imports included used vehicles, and automotive gas oil (diesel).
Total exports increased by 8.15 percent when compared to the amount recorded in the first quarter of 2023 (N6.49 trillion) but declined by 5.20 percent compared to the corresponding quarter in 2022 (N7,400.89 billion).
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The largest export product was ‘Petroleum oils and oils obtained from bituminous minerals, crude’ valued at N5.59 trillion representing 79.63 percent. Others were Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) liquefied billion and Urea.
Foreign portfolio investment (FPI) was the largest amount of capital importation by type, $3.30 billion.
This is however 34.1 percent lower compared to the $5.14 billion recorded in 2020. Foreign direct investment in Nigeria was a paltry $696.78 million, 32 percent lower than the $1.03 billion recorded in the preceding year.
