Report: Q1 2023 Release Shows Nigeria Foreign Trade Slip to N12.05 Trillion

Nigeria's foreign trade falls after the country recorded N12.05 trillion in the first quarter of 2023, showing a decline in the percentage of 17.5% compared to N14.6 trillion obtained from foreign trade in Q1 2022. 

The decline in foreign trade may be caused by the slow economic activities in the country since the CBN Naira policy led to a severe cash crunch. This effect negatively impacted top sectors in the Nigerian economy as of Q1 2023.

According to the report recently released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Nigeria spent N5.15 trillion importing the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) in the review quarter which accounted for 79.4% of the sum total import during this period.

A breakdown of Nigeria's foreign trade 

The recent report released by the National Bureau of Statistics shows details on the breakdown of foreign trade. In the report, Imports was traded at N5.56 trillion in Q1 2023 from the earnings of Q4 and Q1 2022 which traded at N5.36 trillion and N7.49 trillion respectively.

While on the other hand, Nigeria's exports experienced a slight increase of 2% to N6.49 trillion in the review quarter from the release of the Q4 2022 which shows that N6.36 trillion which shows an 8.7% decline from N7.1 trillion in Q1 2022.

This corresponds with the trade balance of N927.2 billion in Q1 2023 from the previous quarter of N996.8 billion and N393.6 billion recorded in the previous quarter.

According to the NBS report recorded, Nigeria had an average daily oil production of 1.51 million barrels per day (mbpd) in Q1 2023, which was higher than the daily average production of 1.49mbpd recorded in the same quarter of 2022.

A look at the top trading partners

According to the ranking, five countries have topped the chart as the five export destinations where Nigerian supplies have visited Nigeria in the first quarter of 2023.

On the list, the Netherlands had N837.65 billion or 12.91%, the United States of America with N579.35 billion or 8.93%, Spain with N488.17 billion or 7.53%, France with N487.34 billion or 7.51% and India with N456.69 billion or 7.04 of exports in totals. From the Five (5) countries, there's a sum total of 43.92% value of exports.