By Adedapo Adesanya
Crude oil valued at N14.41 trillion was exported out of Nigeria in 2021, a report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has said, while the value of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, imported into the country in the year increased by 88.2 per cent.
In its latest report, the stats office said the petrol import bill of the country, which prides itself as the largest economy in Africa, stood at 3.97 trillion in the period under review compared with N2.11 trillion in 2020.
Although widespread belief was that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited was the sole importer of the product into the country until it was recently revealed that apart from Duke Oil, a subsidiary of the NNPC, other companies like Oando Plc, MRS, and Emadeb/Hyde/AY Maikifi/Brittania-U Consortium are also importers of fuel.
Other private importers are yet to resume importation due to the lack of full deregulation of petrol prices and access to foreign exchange at the official rate.
The NBS report further revealed that PMS used vehicles and durum wheat topped the list of items imported by Nigeria in 2021, jointly accounting for 28.9 per cent of the total import bill recorded in the year under review.
Nigeria recorded a 58 per cent surge in total international trade to N39.75 trillion in 2021 from N25.22 trillion recorded in the previous year, according to the report.
On crude oil exports, it was revealed that the value increased by 53 per cent from the N9.44 trillion recorded in 2020, while also accounting for 76 per cent of Nigeria’s total export earnings.
Aside from the increasing cost of petrol importation, economic and energy experts have continued to decry the rising cost of fuel subsidy by the federal government as the NNPC said fuel subsidy gulped N1.43 trillion in the year under review.
In February, March, April, May, and June 2021, under-recovery for PMS amounted to N25.37 billion, N60.39 billion, N61.96 billion, N126.29 billion, and N164.33 billion, respectively.
In July, August, September, October, November and December, the NNPC spent N103.28 billion, N173.13 billion, N149.28 billion, N163 billion, N131.4 billion, and N270.83 billion, respectively.
Modupe Gbadeyanka