Two of Asia’s biggest economies, China and India control a significant part of Nigeria’s foreign trade, latest statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics have revealed.
Both countries have completely edged out US which has fallen out of Nigeria’s top export market after cutting down oil importation from Nigeria.
While India remains Nigeria biggest export market as of the first quarter of 2019 with a total import of N744.9 billion worth of goods from Nigeria, China accounted for Nigeria’s highest import in the same period estimated at N979 billion.
The top ten rankings of Nigeria’s export market released by the NBS shows that a total of N3.13 trillion worth of goods were exported in the first quarter of 2019.
For the first quarter, India imported N744.9 billion worth of goods from Nigeria to rank first, and this is dominated by crude oil (N684 billion). A further breakdown shows that India now imports 16.43 per cent of Nigeria’s total export, as against 15.53 per cent recorded in the previous quarter (fourth quarter of 2018).
Meanwhile, Angola is the only country that imported zero crude oil from Nigeria but imported the highest non-crude oil products from Nigeria, estimated at N202.6 billion in first quarter of 2019.
Also, Sweden has just joined one of Nigeria’s biggest exporting nations, as it ranks ten with crude oil worth N151 billion.
It is important to note that Nigeria generates over 70 per cent of its total revenue and 91 per cent of its foreign exchange revenue from Oil. Hence, the interplay of the trade war between U.S-China with escalation into India will greatly affect Nigeria’s oil money and the economy at large.
President Trump may announce another tariff on Chinese goods, which will escalate the war. Sources have revealed that China may devalue its currency to sustain U.S sanctions and Nigeria may benefit from this through importation.
