COVID-19 Plunged Nigeria’s Total Foreign Trade by 10.3 percent in 2020

The value of Nigeria’s total foreign trade declined by 10.3 percent to N32.421 trillion in 2020 when compared to 2019, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported.

According to the report, the value of total imports stood at N19.898 billion in 2020, representing a 17.3 percent increase from 2019 value while total exports were weighed upon by COVID-19 lockdown and dragged 34.8 percent below 2019 value to N12.523 trillion in 2020.

On a quarterly basis, Nigeria’s total merchandise trade stood at N9.120.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2020, representing a 8.9 percent increase over the preceding quarter of 2020 but was 9.9 percent lower when compared to the fourth quarter of 2019.

Nigeria recorded the highest value of trade in the fourth quarter in recent years.

NBS reported revealed that exports stood at N3.195 trillion in the fourth quarter, an increase of 6.7 percent over the third quarter but represent a decline of 33 percent over the previous year.

Therefore, the share of exports in total trade declined to 35 percent in the fourth quarter of 2020 from 47 percent a year earlier.

On the other hand, total imports rose to a record high at N5.926 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2020, an increase of 10.1 percent over the preceding quarter and 10.8 percent over the preceding year.

Imports also accounted for 65 percent of total trade in the fourth quarter of 2020, compared to 53 percent posted in the previous year. As the value of imports nearly doubled the value of exports, the trade deficit rose to its highest level and a fifth consecutive quarterly deficit at -N2.731.2 trillion, an increase of 14.30 percent when compared to the preceding quarter.