Nigeria suffered a manufactured goods trade deficit of $85bn between 2017 and 2021

NIGERIA suffered a trade deficit of over $35trn ($85bn) when it came to manufactured goods during the four years between 2017 and 2021 as she spent N40.94trn on imports and only generated N4.22tn from exports during the period.

According to data obtained from the Foreign Trade Report of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), between January 2017 and March 2021, Nigeria spent N40.94trn on the importation of manufactured goods. During the same period, the country only earned N4.22trn on the export of manufactured goods.

During the review period, the total value of imports was N66.43trn and total value of exports was N67.30trn. Manufactured goods dominated the import bill but contributed little to the export bill of the nation.

Nigeria’s exports were dominated by crude oil according to the NBS. During the review period, the nation exported N49.31trn worth of crude oil compared to manufactured goods that only earned the nation N4.22trn.

In 2017, Nigeria spent N4.57trn on manufactured imports and only earned N285.23bn from manufactured exports. Manufactured goods imported into the country included milk and cream in powder specially made for infants, used vehicles, motorcycles and cycles among others items.

Imports came mainly from Germany, France, the US, the Netherlands, and China. Nigeria on the other hand exported manufactured goods such as vessels and other floating structures, cigarettes containing tobacco and fermented cocoa beans, mainly to the Netherlands, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

In 2018, Nigeria’s manufactured goods import bill rose to N7.19trn, while its export bill was N575.8bn. In 2019, Nigeria’s manufactured goods import bill rose to N11.94tn, while the export bill stood at N2.07tn, leading to a manufactured trade deficit in excess of N9tn during the period.

According to the NBS, in 2020, Nigeria's import bill ballooned to N12.71trn while export bill dropped below N1trn to N960.7bn. Nigeria's manufactured trade deficit was thus highest in 2020 with a deficit in excess of N11trn.