By Dipo Olowookere
It seems efforts by the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari to diversify the nation’s economy so as to stop the heavy reliance on crude oil as Nigeria’s major exports are not yielding any meaningful results.
This is because the commodity is still the main driver of the economy despite attempts to make the non-oil industry contribute significantly to revenue generated.
Last week, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released the Foreign Trade in Goods Statistics for the first quarter of 2019, but the figures showed that much of the trades carried out by the Africa’s largest economy was still in the oil sector.
According to the stats office, Nigeria’s export in the first quarter of this year was still oil dependent, with exports trade dominated by crude oil exports, which contributed N3.377 trillion or 74.45 percent to the value of total exports in Q1, 2019.
However, the non-oil products accounted for 25.55 percent of total exports in the quarter under review.
In Q1 2019, Nigeria exported most products to Europe, Asia and Africa equivalent to N1.833 trillion or 40.43 percent of total exports, N1.325 trillion or 29.2 percent and N936.8 billion or 20.67 percent respectively.
Furthermore, Nigeria exported goods worth N405.8 billion or 8.95 percent to the Americas and N34.5 billion or 0.76 percent to Oceania.
Within Africa, Nigeria exported goods valued at N300.6 billion to ECOWAS member states, representing 32.08 percent of total merchandise exports to Africa.
By country of destination, Nigeria exported goods mainly to India, Spain, Netherlands, South Africa and France, valued at N745.0 billion or 16.43 percent, N487.1 billion or 10.74 percent, N405.4 billion or 8.9 percent, N325.5 billion or 7.2 percent and N302.3 billion or 6.7 percent respectively.
In the report, the NBS said the total trade recorded in Nigeria in the first quarter of 2019 grew by 2.50 percent when compared with what was achieved in the fourth quarter of and by 7.52 percent as against the corresponding quarter in 2018.
In the period under consideration, the country’s total exports was recorded at N4.535 trillion, which represents a 1.78 percent rise compared with the fourth quarter of 2018 but a 3.9 percent fall compared to the first quarter of 2018.
Similarly, the value of total imports increased to N3.704 trillion, representing an increase of 3.39 percent relative to Q4 2018 and 29.84 percent compared with Q1 2018.
It further stated that the trade balance of Nigeria remained positive at N831.6 billion in the first quarter of this year, boosted by increase in both exports and imports, with the boost also helped total trade increase to N8.239 trillion.
A breakdown of the imports showed that imported agricultural products were 7.98 percent higher in value than in Q4 2018, and 28.1 percent higher than in Q1, 2018, while the value of raw material imports grew 6.62 percent more than the value recorded in Q4, 2018 and 20.76 percent more than the value recorded in Q1 2018.
Also, the value of solid minerals imports was 1.26 percent more than the value of imports in Q4, 2018 and 35.90 percent higher than the value recorded in Q1 2018, while the value of energy goods imports was 20.28 percent lower than in Q4, 2018. Compared with the corresponding quarter of 2018, a decrease of 0.94 percent was recorded.
In the report analysed by Business Post, the stats office said the value of imported manufactured goods increased by 25.81 percent in Q1, 2019 against the value recorded in Q4, 2018 and rose by 130.7 percent against its value in Q1, 2018. The increase in value of imported manufactured goods was partly as a result of the importation of hygienic/ pharmaceutical product for humanitarian purposes during the quarter.
In addition, the value of other oil products imported was 58.4 percent lower than in Q4, 2018 and 72.71 percent lower than the corresponding quarter of 2018.
For the exports, the value of agricultural exports in Q1 2019 was 11.89 percent lower than in Q4, 2018 but 17.5 percent higher than Q1 2018.
The value of raw material exports in Q1, 2019 was 10.67 percent lower than the value in Q4, 2018 but 11.57 percent higher than in Q1 2018.
The value of solid minerals exports increased by 16.88 percent relative to Q4 2018 but decreased by 66.6 percent compared to the corresponding quarter in 2018.
The exports of energy goods decreased in value by 1.3 percent compared to Q4, 2018 but increased by 2.17 percent when compared with Q1 2018.
The value of manufactured goods exports rose by 511.19 percent in Q1 2019 when compared with the value recorded in Q4 2018 and 6.43 percent compared to the corresponding quarter in 2018. The increase in export during the quarter was due to the re-export of vessels and other floating structures during the quarter, amongst other high value re-exports.
The value of crude oil exports in Q1 2019 was 7.78 percent lower than in Q4 2018 and 5.67 percent lower than in Q1 2018.
The value of other oil products exports decreased by 1.42 percent compared to Q4 2018, and 1.44 percent compared to Q1 2018.
Adedapo Adesanya