Manufacturing Trade Deficit Hits N27.33tn In Two Years – NBS Report

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, has revealed that the value of manufactured goods trade deficit has grown to N27.33tn in a space of two years.

In its ‘Foreign Trade in Goods Statistics’ for the four quarters of 2020 and 2021, the Bureau stated that manufacturing imports increased from N12.71tn in 2020 to N16.73tn in 2021, while exports rose from N960.7bn in 2020 to N1.15tn in 2021.

Cumulative imports for both years under review totalled N29.44tn which makes up 93.30 per cent of foreign manufactured trade. The export for two years stood at N2.11tn which made up 6.69 per cent of the same trade.

Total manufactured goods for two years stood at N31.55tn.

In 2021, total value of imports of used vehicles was N418.34bn, motorcycles was N367.39bn, while import of machines for the reception, conversion and transmission or regeneration of voice and images was put N366.83bn.

In 2020, the total value of imported used vehicles was N593bn, while that of motorcycles was put at N415.87bn.

The nation imported used vehicles from the United States, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Brazil, and Canada. It imported motorcycles from India and China.

It imported machines for the reception, conversion and transmission or regeneration of voice, images from China, Hong-Kong, and Sweden.

The report also stated that vessels and other floating structures, aluminum alloys, and floating or submersible drilling platforms formed the major component of exported manufactured goods.

The NBS said Nigeria exported manufactured goods to Ghana, Cameroon, China, and Japan majorly in 2021.

In its, ‘Nigeria Selected Issues,’ report released in February 2022, the International Monetary Fund stated that Nigeria’s high dependence on oil was affecting the country’s ability to develop it’s manufacturing sector.

It said: “In turn, high economic dependence on oil impedes diversification through overshadowing, among others, the competitiveness of other tradable sectors, particularly manufacturing.

“Caution is warranted not to interpret rising machinery exports as an expansion of the manufacturing sector in Nigeria, as helicopters, vessels, and other floating structures are foreign manufactured goods that were re-exported from Nigeria (according to data from the NBS trade report for 2021Q1).

“Re-exports are goods of foreign origin which entered Nigeria to be consumed but are subsequently sold to another country without any substantial transformation. In other words, they are exported in the same condition as imported. In 2021Q1, they represented 83.5 per cent of the total manufactured goods exported from the country.”