Nigeria’s external trade in the fourth quarter 2016 was valued at N5,286.6 billion with export component standing at N2,978.9 billion while its import was N2,307.6 billion leading to a trade surplus of N671.3 billion.
According to the Merchandise Trade Intensity Index/Re-Export Report Quarter 4, 2016 released by National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Tuesday, trade by sector showed that crude oil exports had the largest share of the total trade, accounting for N2,425.4 billion or 45.9%.
The second major contributor to total trade by sector was manufactured goods with N1,167.1 billion or 22.1% of total trade.
This was followed by other (non-crude) oil products with N1,153.9 billion or 21.8 percent, while agricultural goods, which accounted for N212.7 billion or 4 percent, raw material goods, which accounted for N309.3 billion or 5.9 percent, and solid mineral goods, which stood at N13.1 billion or 0.3 percent of total trade during the period under, review.
The value of the total trade at end of 2016 amounted to N17,345.0 billion which is 6.5 percent higher than the value recorded for 2015 NBS explained that export intensity index compares the share of exports to each country in Nigeria’s total exports, with the share of world exports going to that country, and therefore gives a measure of the importance of that country to Nigeria as an export destination.
A higher number denotes a stronger relationship, and an index of one indicates that exports to that country are what would be expected given global trade patterns.
Export intensity in October, November and December 2016 was highest for South Africa with export intensities of 8.9, 7.3 and 4.1 respectively.
Export intensity in Q4 2016 was also intense with India with export intensities of 5.8, 5.8 and 1.7 for the last three months of 2016.
Spain and Netherlands also had high export intensities with export intensities of 4.8, 2.9 and 2.0 for Spain and 2.2, 1.5 and 2.2 for the Netherlands.
Although United States was one of Nigeria’s major trading partners, its export intensity was low with 0.6, 0.6 and 0.2 for the last three months of 2016.
Import intensity follows the same concept of export trade intensity except that in this case it relates to imports.
Nigeria’s major import trading partners in Q4 2016 were China, Belgium, Netherlands, United States and India.
With respect to import intensity, China has been the most important source of imports for Nigeria throughout 2016 recording import intensity values of 1.1, 0.8 and 0.5 in the last quarter of 2016. Belgium had import intensities of 5.6, 3.6 and 2.3 for the same months followed by Netherlands and India that have import intensities of 3.5, 1.4 and 0.6; 2.2, 2.5 and 1.1 respectively.
However, the import intensity of Nigeria with United States was lower with 0.7, 0.6 and 0.4
Agricultural goods exports were 2.7% higher in Q4 2016 than Q3 2016 Raw material exports in Q4 2016 were 184.6% higher than Q3 2016 Solid minerals exports were 6.2% lower than the value in Q3 2016
Manufactured goods exports were 75% more than the value in Q3 2016 Crude Oil exports were 24% higher than the value recorded in Q3 2016 Other oil products exports was 48.6% more in value than in Q3 2016.
Nigeria’s major export trading partners include India, Netherlands, United States, Spain and South Africa while major import trading partners are China, Belgium, Netherlands, United States and India.
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