According to the ‘Foreign Trade in Goods Statistics (Q3 2022) released by the National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria’s total merchandise trade fell by N1.24trillion.

This is from N12.84trillion in the second quarter of 2022 to N11.59trillion in the third quarter of 2022.

This drop was influenced by the decline in crude oil exports, which fell from N5.91 trillion in Q2 2022 to N4.66 trillionin Q3 2022.

The NBS said, “In q3 2022, Nigeria’s total trade stood at N11.59tn, this was lower than the value recorded in the second quarter of 2022 (N12.84tn) but was higher than the value recorded in the corresponding period of 2021 which stood at N10.47tn.

“Total Exports stood at N5.93tn of which Re-exports were N25.04bn, while total imports stood at N5.66tn. In the quarter under review, total exports declined by 19.89 per cent when compared to the second quarter of 2022 (N7.41tn) but it increased by 15.52 per cent of the value recorded in the third quarter of 2021 (N5.14tn).

“On the other hand, total imports increased by 4.22 per cent in the third quarter of 2022 when compared to the value recorded in the second quarter of 2022 (N5.44tn) and also grew by 6.16 per cent when compared to the value recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2021 (N5.34tn).”

According to the statistics body, the top five export destinations in the period were: Spain, India, France, the Netherlands, and Indonesia. The top five countries for imports were: China, The Netherlands, India, Belgium, and the United States of America.

The NBS disclosed that most commodities were exported by sea, with maritime accounting to N5.87tn or 98.88 per cent of total exports.