THE National Bureau of Statistics, on Wednesday, released the country’s merchandise trade report with Nigeria’s foreign trade standing at N6.24trn in the second quarter of 2020.
This represents a decline of 27.3 per cent, compared to N8.58trn recorded in the first quarter of this year.
According to the NBS report, the import component was valued at N4.02trn, representing a drop of 10.69 per cent in the second quarter, against N4.50trn recorded in the first quarter.
The export component accounted for N2.21trn of the total trade, indicating a decline of 45.64 per cent, against N4.08trn recorded in the first quarter of this year.
As a result, the country recorded a deficit of N1.8trn, marking the third consecutive quarter of negative trade balance.
Nigeria’s trade deficit was N421.3bn in the first quarter of this year and N579.06bn in the fourth quarter of last year.
According to the report, obtained by The Point, the total trade in agricultural goods stood at N493.7bn, of which exported agricultural goods accounted for N78.1bn.
The report stated, “Most Agricultural goods were exported to Asia, Europe and America, valued at N43.6bn, N26.4bn and N6.6bn.
“The key driver of agricultural products exports were superior quality raw cocoa beans, Sesamum seeds, Cashew nuts, good fermented cocoa beans and more.”
It said that the main consumers of superior quality cocoa were The Netherlands (N9.3bn), Indonesia(N3.7bn) and United States(N2.4bn).
Other agricultural exports were Sesamum seeds exported to Japan (N6bn) and to China (N2.3bn). Also, cashew nuts, worth N12bn, were exported to Vietnam.
In terms of imports, Durum wheat, worth N41bn, was imported from the United States, Russia
(N28.8bn) and Latvia (N24.5bn).
Similarly, the value of total trade in solid mineral goods stood at N30.5bn in the second quarter of this year, comprising import component of N28.97bn and export component of N1.6bn.
The major products exported under this sector were Cement clinkers, exported to Senegal, valued at N44m, followed by Manganese Ores and concentrates exported to China, worth N42m and Lead ores and concentrate exported also to China, and worth N39m.
The value of manufactured goods traded in the second quarter of this year stood at N3trn. Out of this, the export component accounted for N254.2bn.
The products that drove up manufactured export were light vessels, fire floats, floating cranes exported to Spain, worth N129bn.
