Nigeria’s Trade Surplus Rises By 69%

Data from the Central Bank of Nigeria has shown that the country’s trade surplus rose year-on-year (YoY) by 69 per cent. This is an increase to $11.58 billion in the first ten months of 2022 (January to October),  from $6.85 billion in the corresponding period of 2021.

CBN said this in its Economic Report for October, 2022 , adding that export receipts rose YoY by 14 per cent to $54.21 billion in 2022 from $47.46 billion in the corresponding period of 2021.

The report also shows that merchandise imports rose YoY by 1.47 percent to $42.61 billion in 10 M’22 from $41.99 billion in the period.

In the report, CBN noted that Nigeria’s trade surplus fell month-on-month (MoM) by 93.7 per cent to $50 million in October 2022 from $750 million in September 2022 amidst higher import bills.

According to CBN, imports increased by 34.9 per cent to $4.64 billion driven by the rise in the import of petroleum products to $1.24 billion from $120 million in September.

CBN said: “Available data shows a decline of 93.7 per cent in trade surplus to $0.05 billion, from $0.75 billion in the preceding period.

“Aggregate export receipts rose by 11.9 per cent to $4.69 billion, relative to $4.19 billion in September 2022. Similarly, merchandise import rose by 34.9 per cent to $4.64 billion, from $3.44 billion in September 2022.”

However, the data indicated impressive developments in crude oil trade as, according to CBN, the decision by the Oil Producing and Exporting Countries, OPEC+ to cut global production by 2mb/d from November 2022 stoked higher crude oil prices at the international market, thereby resulting in improved crude oil export earnings.

The report stated: “Crude oil and gas export receipts rose to $4.30 billion, compared with $3.81 billion in September 2022.

“A breakdown reveals that receipts from crude oil export grew by 13.3 per cent to $3.65 billion (77.9 per cent of total export), from $3.23 billion in the preceding month.

“Similarly, the price of Nigeria’s reference crude, the Bonny Light, rose by 3.5 per cent to an average of $96.56pb, from $93.25pb in September 2022.

“Gas export receipts also increased by 9.6 per cent to $0.64 billion (13.7 per cent of total export) from $0.58 billion in the preceding month.

“Non-oil export earnings rose by 3.6 per cent to $0.40 billion, from $0.38 billion in September 2022, largely, due to sustained favourable commodity prices at the international market.”