The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has placed Nigeria’s petroleum import bill at N687.74 billion in three months, between January to March 2021.
Nigeria’s oil sector regulator, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has sole proprietorship over petrol importation into the country owing to delay in the deregulation of the downstream petroleum industry, which had forced private oil marketers to back out from the importation of the commodity.
According to the NBS’s Foreign Trade Statistics for quarter one of 2021, the sum expended on fuel import shows a slump of 6.05 percent in expenditure when compared with the N732.02 billion spent on the import of the PMS in the first quarter in the previous year.
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The Bureau noted that the country recorded a growth of 6.99 percent totaling N9.758 trillion in foreign trade in Q1, 2021 when compared to N9.12 trillion recorded in the fourth quarter of 2020.
It said, “For the first quarter of 2021, Nigeria’s total merchandise trade stood at N9.758 trillion representing a 6.99 percent increase over the value recorded in fourth-quarter 2020 and 14.13 percent compared to the first quarter 2020.
“The export component of this trade stood at N2.907 trillion, representing 29.79 percent of the total trade while import was valued at N6.850 trillion representing 70.21 percent. The higher level of imports over exports resulted in a trade deficit (in goods) of N3.943 trillion.”
