Nigerian economy continues to deteriorate with it losing out in trade with other African countries as reflected in a 33.8 percent decline in trade balance with the continent to N1.86 trillion in 2021 from N2.81 trillion in 2019.

This development, coming ahead of the full implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), also led to a decline in the percentage of Nigeria’s trade with Africa compared to the rest of the world to 7.45 percent in 2021 from 13.91 percent.

Private sector operators are in no way less guilty for this fall as they have contributed to the downward trend in the nation’s trade balance with the rest of Africa to supply chain disruptions, high cost of production making Nigerian exports not competitive, and the scarcity of forex needed to import critical input for production.

Among other things, the above factors were behind the apprehension over the readiness of Nigeria for a regional trade deal like AfCTA, with private sector operators expressing fears that the country might become a dumping ground for goods from other countries.

According to Financial Vanguard analysis of Foreign Trade in Goods data for Q4 2021 from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), report shows that the volume of exports to the continent dropped by 38.5 percent to N2.41 trillion in 2021 from N3.92 trillion in 2019, while imports within the same period declined by 50.3 percent from N1.11 trillion to N551.31 billion.

The data collected is based on NBS’ reviewed figures for 2020 and January to September 2021.
Further analysis of the NBS data shows that Nigeria’s imports from Africa in 2019 amounted to N1.11 trillion while exports to the continent stood at N3.92 trillion, indicating a surplus of N2.81 trillion; in 2020, imports from Africa stood at N406.88 billion against exports of N2.37 trillion resulting in N1.96 trillion surplus; while Nigeria imported goods worth N551. 31 billion in 2021 and exported N2.41 trillion worth of goods to the continent, showing a surplus of N1.86 trillion.