Nigeria's rising exports push trade surplus to N5.8trn - NBS

Nigeria’s trade surplus stood at N5.81 trillion in the third quarter of 2024, according to the latest foreign trade statistics report released Friday.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) report shows that the country recorded a positive trade balance of N5.81 trillion for the eighth consecutive quarters in Q3, but this is lower than N6.9 trillion recorded in Q2 and N6.52 trillion in Q1.

A trade surplus, an economic measure of a positive trade balance, occurs when a country’s exports exceed its imports.

Total merchandise trade in Africa’s most populous nation stood at N35.1 trillion in Q3, an increase of 13.26 percent over the value recorded in the preceding quarter and rose by 81.35 percent compared to the value recorded in the corresponding period of 2023.

“Total exports in Q3 2024 were valued at N20.4 trillion, reflecting a 98.00 percent rise compared to N10.3 trillion in the corresponding quarter of 2023 and a 16.76 percent increase compared to N17.5 trillion in Q2 2024,” the NBS report stated.

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It said exports trade in Q3 was dominated by crude oil exports valued at N13.4 trillion representing 65.4 percent of total exports while the value of non-crude oil exports stood at N7 trillion, the highest it’s been in years, accounting for 34.56 percent of total exports; of which non-oil products contributed N2.5 trillion or 12.21 percent of total exports.

“The share of imports accounted for 41.73 percent of total trade in the third quarter of 2024 with the value of imports amounting to N14.6 trillion in Q3, 2024. This value indicates an increase of 62.30 percent compared to the value recorded in Q3 2023 (N9 trillion) and 8.71 percent over the value recorded in Q2 2024 (N13.4 trillion),” the NBS said.

According to the Bureau, the top trading export partners with Nigeria were Spain, the United States of America, France, The Netherlands and Italy.

While crude oil dominated exported commodities, agricultural produce saw a 9.2 percent decline in exports, slowing down from N973.6 billion in Q2 to N884.07 billion in the period under review. But it jumped 301.87 percent on a year-on-year basis.

Wasiu Alli

Wasiu Alli is a business, economics cum data journalist with strong expertise covering macro trends, capital markets, government policies, corporate earnings and comparative economics analysis. Alli turns raw data into trends that not only tells compelling stories but nudges investors to make valued and informed decisions. He’s an alumnus of Lagos State University and trained at Lagos Business School. He formerly heads the Companies and Markets desk at BusinessDay where he writes and supervises the production of well researched articles on earnings updates, corporate sectoral comparisons, market intelligence as well as interviews with C-suite executives.