Nigeria has witnessed a trade surplus of more than N12.15 trillion for the first six months of 2024. According to the Q2 2024 Foreign Trade Report released by the National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria between January to June, 2024 exported goods and services worth N38.586 trillion and imported N26.44 trillion worth of goods and services within the same period.
This amounts to a whooping combined trade surplus of N12.14 trillion for the Q1 and Q2 of 2024.
For Q2 2024, Nigeria’s total merchandise trade stood at N31.89 trillion. For the quarter, total exports stood at N19.42 trillion, accounting for 60.89% of the country’s total trade in Q2 2024. The total value of imports stood at N12.47 trillion, accounting for 39.11% of the country’s merchandise trade. The trade surplus for Q2 2024 is N6.95 trillion.
The N12.15 trillion surplus so far recorded by Nigeria between January to June, 2024 is 238.24% of the N5.099 trillion surplus Nigeria recorded for the entire four quarters of 2023.
The significant increase in Nigeria’s trade surplus in the first six months of 2024 shows a rapidly declining amount of imports, and a significant increase in exports mostly driven by crude oil exports. That is a positive sign that Nigeria’s economy is expanding. NBS had earlier reported that Nigeria’s GDP grew by 3.19% in Q2 2024 up from the 2.98% recorded in Q1 2024.
With the anticipated massive decline in importation of refined petroleum products, which accounted for N10.18 trillion or 38.5% of our import bill between January to June 2024, as Dangote Refinery begins sale of petroleum products, Nigeria’s balance of trade will witness further significant improvements in the coming quarters.
The reduction of imports reduces the pressure on Nigeria’s foreign reserves, which helps the Naira to strengthen and stabilise around a market-determined value. This also would have a huge impact on general inflation since the bulk of manufactured goods used by Nigerians are imported using FX.