Nigeria Reports ₦927.16bn Trade Surplus In Q1 2023

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) stated that Nigeria had a trade surplus of ₦927.16 billion during January to March 2023.

A trade surplus is a positive trade balance indication in which a country’s exports outnumber its imports.

According to the NBS’s foreign trade report for the first quarter of 2023, Nigeria’s total exports were N6.49 trillion and imports were ₦5.56 trillion.

The NBS report revealed that the country’s total trade was ₦12.05 trillion in the quarter under review. This is greater than the value recorded in the equivalent period (Q1) of 2021 (₦7.86 trillion).

It is also higher than the N11.72 trillion reported in Nigeria’s commerce in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2022.

“Total exports increased in the first quarter by 2 percent but declined by 8.66 percent when compared to the amount recorded in the fourth quarter of 2022 (N6,359.61 billion) and the corresponding quarter in 2022 (N7,102.11 billion) respectively,” the report reads.

“In the same vein, total imports increased by 3.67 percent in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the value recorded in the fourth quarter of 2022 (N5,362.83 billion) but then again declined by 25.83 percent when compared to the value recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2022 (N7,495.67 billion).”

According to the research, the majority of imported items in Q1 2022 came from China, the Netherlands, Belgium, India, and the United States of America.

NBS via the report said that the value of imports from the aforementioned nations amounted to N3.1 trillion, accounting for 55.78 percent of total import value.

According to the agency, the commodities with the highest import values were “motor spirit ordinary, gas oil, and durum wheat”.

Meanwhile, the Netherlands received items valued N837.65 billion (the most).

The United States of America (N579.35 billion), Spain (N488.17 billion), France (N487.34 billion), and India (N456.69 billion) were also recipients of commodities.