By Yahaya Umar
Nigeria’s trade with other African countries has seen improvement over the last three months with the country earning over N2.028tn as export proceeds from crude oil and bituminous minerals in the first quarter of 2024.
Nigeria spent only N201.8bn to import commodities from Africa while total exports to African countries were worth N2.236tn in the first three months of 2024.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics ,NBS, the major commodities exported to African countries in the review period were petroleum oils and oils obtained from bituminous minerals valued at N2.028tn.
The amount accounted for 90.67% of total exports to Africa.
The major exported commodities were petroleum oils and oils obtained from bituminous minerals valued at N2.028tn while electrical energy worth N58.65bn or 2.62% was sold to neighboring countries.
Others were urea worth N30.42bn, cement clinkers N12.04bn or 0.54%, and flours and meals of soya beans N9.41bn or 0.42 l%.
South Africa imported commodities worth N957.06bn, Ivory Coast N744.59bn, Senegal N361.29bn, Benin Republic N55.67bn and Togo N38bn.
In West Africa, the total commodities exported by Nigeria were valued at N1.25tn while only N113.04bn worth of commodities were imported into the country.
A breakdown showed that Nigeria exported commodities worth N744.59bn to Ivory Coast; Senegal imported N361.29bn; Benin N55.67bn; Togo N38.01bn and Ghana N33.75bn.
The amount spent by the major export partners represents 98.61% of total export to ECOWAS countries.
Nigeria’s major export commodities to ECOWAS were petroleum oils and oils obtained from bituminous minerals worth N1.074tn or 85.9% of total exports to ECOWAS.
Electrical energy sold during the period was N58.65bn or 4.69% urea export was N29.45bn or 2.35%, flours and meals of soya beans (N9.20bn or 0.74%) and other excluding white cement N6.66bn or 0.53%.
