Manufactured goods export surges 684%, boosts trade surplus
by Cynthia Egboboh, Abuja
June 6, 2018 | 8:21 pm



The total goods manufactured and exported out of Nigeria surged by 684.11% to N434.37 billion in the first quarter on 2018, and boosted the country’s trade balance to a surplus, figures released from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Wednesday indicated.

The manufacturing exports were higher than the N55.39 billion recorded in the fourth quarter of 2017 and also a 576.90 percent increase from the value recorded in the Q1, 2017 which was recorded at N64.17 billion.

The total value of Nigeria’s external trade in goods amounted to N7.2 trillion(update) in the first quarter, indicating a growth of N1.2 trillion or 19.74 percent from the N6 trillion recorded in the last quarter of 2017 . The total trade value in Q1, 2018 also showed a 35.07 percent growth compared to the amount of N5.3 trillion recorded in the same quarter last year, according to the National Bureau of statistics.

The trade balance in Q1, 2018 was pushed up to N2.2 trillion, having increased by 20.95 percent from the last quarter in 2017 and 221.08 percent over the same quarter in 2017. “The significant increase of trade balance in the reviewing quarter was driven by the stronger growth in exports compared to imports,” the NBS stated in its latest trade report.

The total value of exports n the quarter under review was N4.7 trillion, representing a 20.02 percent growth over the fourth quarter of 2017 and a 56.01 percent growth compared to the first quarter in 2017. Likewise, the total import component in terms first quarter N2.5 trillion also recorded a growth of 19.22 percent on a quarter on quarter basis and 8.04 percent year on year .

Export in the first quarter, was, however, still dominated by crude oil although the proportion of non crude oil export increased from 17 percent in the last quarter to approximately 24 percent in the reviewing quarter. The value of cruse oil export stood at N3.6 trillion in the first quarter of 2018, which accounted for 76.3 percent of the total exports from Nigeria.

On the other hand, the total value of imports into Nigeria in the first quarter stood at N2.5 trillion of which N845 billion imports were mineral fuel (33.6 percent of the total import) and N669.1 billion were machinery and transport equipment (26.6 percent of the total import). In the first quarter of 2018, the value of mineral fuel products imports increased by 122.2 percent compared to the last quarter of 2017. Import of machinery and transport equipment, chemical and related products and food and live animals decreased marginally from the previous quarter.

kayfra:
This is welcome news. We are doing more than exporting raw materials and we are adding value to our earnings. Soon importation of fuel will reduce when Dangote and Adebutu refineries gets online and that hopefully too will turn to net export of finished goods and forex earner.

We want more of this unlike the past when everything was just cheap imports from china. Using Nigeria as a dumping ground for substandard goods.