Festus Akanbi
The 169 per cent year-on-year increase in trade surplus recorded by the federal government for 2022 has almost put Nigeria’s annual trade volume at the positive threshold of the pre-COVID years, data by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has indicated.
According to the NBS data, Nigeria recorded a N1.2 trillion goods trade surplus in 2022, as export bills (N26.8 trillion) outweighed import earnings (N25.6 trillion) for the first time since the preceding year (N2.23 trillion in 2019).
Nonetheless, the 2022 surplus represents a 162 per cent improvement over the N1.94 trillion goods trade deficit in 2021.
The report also showed that Nigeria’s total merchandise trade in 2022 increased to N52.4 trillion from N39.75 trillion in 2021, while total export value grew by 42 per cent to N26.8 trillion from N18.91 trillion in 2021.
The country’s trade balance was N5.37 trillion in 2018 but fell to N2.23 trillion in 2019.
The following year, global trade…
Source: Thisday Newspaper
