In its latest foreign trade statistics published on Thursday, the Bureau said that durum wheat and imported complete knocked-down (CKD) motorcycles by established manufacturers ranked second and third out of a list of 15 commodities covered by the report.

 

While the total value of petrol imports for the quarter was put at N220.6 billion, the report, however, said that the federal government spent N71.64 billion and N33.93 billion on the second and third commodities respectively.

 

On exports, the NBS report ranked petroleum oils and oils obtained from bituminous minerals, crude, as the top export commodities, with earnings of about N1.61 trillion out of total merchandise exports of N2.33 trillion.

 

It was followed by natural and liquefied gas, with N265.2 billion earnings. Other light vessels, fire-floats, floating cranes were ranked third with N112.36 billion realized from their exports.

 

According to the report, the total value of Nigeria's merchandize trade at the end of the third quarter of 2015 stood at over N4.02 trillion, which showed a 7.8 per cent decline from the revised value of N4.36 trillion recorded in the previous quarter.

 

The drop in total trade value was attributed to a decrease of about N320.6 billion, or 12.1 per cent, in exports value, combined with a marginal decline of N17.4 billion, or one per cent in imports value against the figures in the preceding quarter.

 

Total value of the country's imports for the period under review was one per cent lower than the revised value of N1.71 trillion in the second quarter.

 

Details of the report revealed that the structure of the country's imports by section was dominated by the import of "boilers, machinery, appliances and parts thereof", which accounted for 24 per cent of the total value of imports in the third quarter.

 

The commodities that contributed significantly to the value of imports during the review period include "mineral products" (15.3 per cent), "Vehicles, vessels, aircraft and parts thereof" (8.8 per cent), "Products of the chemical and allied industries" (8.6 per cent), and "Base metals and articles of base metals" (8.4 per cent).

 

Nigeria's imports by direction showed that China (N459.4 billion, or 27.2 per cent), United States (N160.6 billion, or 9.5 per cent), Belgium (N128.3 billion or 7.6 per cent), Netherlands (N101.8 billion, or six per cent) and India (N97.4 billion, or 5.8 per cent) brought in the most goods during the quarter.

 

A further analysis of imports by continent showed Asia as top, with N764.5 billion, or 45.3 per cent total imports value, followed by Europe with N596.4 billion, or 35.3 per cent, and the Americas with N241.3 billion, or 14.3 per cent.

 

Africa accounted for a total import of N65.4 billion, or 3.9 per cent, with imports from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) at about N16.3 billion for the period.

 

During the period, Nigeria's merchandise exports dropped by 12.1 per cent from the N2.65 trillion recorded in the second quarter, primarily as a result of a fall in crude oil exports by N372.8 billion, or 18.8 per cent, for the previous quarter.

 

However, the country's goods were exported mainly to India (N408.2 billion or 17.5 per cent), Netherlands (N245.1 billion or 10.5 per cent), Spain (N211.4 billion or 9.1 per cent), United Kingdom (N192.2 billion or 8.2 per cent) and Brazil (169.4 billion or 7.3 per cent) respectively.

 

Nigeria's export of goods went mostly to Europe (N925 billion, or 39.6 per cent) and Asia (N682.5 billion, or 29.2 per cent) respectively, while exports to Africa was valued at N287.9 billion, or 12.3 per cent, and ECOWAS, N140.4 billion.

Source : allafrica.com