Netherlands Overtakes India, Becomes Nigeria’s Largest Export Market, China Missing From Top 10
The NBS has released its foreign trade report for the second quarter of 2023, which details Nigeria’s trade relationship with the rest of the world
The report revealed that the Netherlands has overtaken India as the top destination for Nigerian products, both crude oil and non-crude oil
In the list of the top 10 countries buying Nigerian products for Q2, 2023, China is missing.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has revealed that Nigeria recorded a total trade of N12.74 trillion in the second quarter of 2023.
The amount is slightly higher than the total trade of N12.04 trillion reported in the first quarter (January to March) of 2023.
However, the Q2 trade was lower than the N12.84 trillion trade achieved in the second quarter (Q2) of 2022.
The figures were captured in NBS’s latest foreign trade report for the second quarter (Q2) of 2023.
Breakdown of Nigeria’s Q2 trade report According to NBS, total exports for the second quarter of 2023 stood at N7.01 trillion, while total imports amounted to N5.72 trillion. This shows that Nigeria exported more in Q2 of 2023 by 8.5% compared to the N6.48 trillion export report in Q1, 2023. However, the export figure for Q2, 2023, is 5.20% lower compared to the N7.40 billion recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2022.
What Nigeria is exporting
Further analysis of the report showed that the most significant export value in the second quarter of 2023 was petroleum oils and oils obtained from bituminous minerals, crude with N5.58 trillion representing 79.63% of the total export.
This was followed by ‘Natural gas, liquefied’ with N639.37 billion accounting for 9.11%, and ‘Urea, whether or not in aqueous solution’ with N81.21 billion or 1.16% of total exports.
The countries buying Nigerian products and value
The top 10 countries that did business with Nigeria in the second quarter of 2023 are as follows:
Countries Value of business with Nigeria in Q2, 2023
Netherlands N788.8bn,
United States N718.63bn
Indonesia N550.17bn
France N 540.72bn
Spain N 504.44bn
India N463.30bn
Canada N463.21bn
United Kingdom N414.50bn
Italy N326.56bn
South Africa N246.01bn
Takeaways
In the second quarter of 2022, India was the top destination for Nigerian products, especially crude oil, accounting for 14.85% of Nigeria’s total exports.
The latest figure of N463.30 billion recorded in Q2, 2023, indicates a 61% increase in trade exports compared to N1.09 trillion in Q2, 2022. Additionally, China was missing from the list of top export destinations as it now relies more on Russia for its crude oil needs.
Nigeria sold N21tn worth of crude oil in 2022
Meanwhile, in another report, Legit.ng revealed that Nigeria sold crude oil in 2022 for N21.09 trillion, according to the NBS. The sales were a 46.41% rise over the N14.41 trillion in sales reported in 2021. NBS included sales in its fourth quarter international trade report.
According to research, Nigeria’s N26.79 trillion total exports in 2022 comprised 78.74% of crude oil exports.
