Nigeria’s N1.8trn imports

China can afford to beat its chest and say it is generally taking the world by storm in mercantile relationship, despite what we think about the quality of its products.

Nowhere is this great Chinese exploit more obvious than in Nigeria, considering the trade volume between the two countries. Speaking in Beijing (last week, April 22, 2014), Mr. Cao Jiachang, China’s Deputy Director, Department of West Asian and African Affairs, disclosed that the trade volume between China and Nigeria in 2013 stood at $13.6 billion.
The breakdown shows that Nigeria is the junior partner as she imported goods and services worth $12 billion (or N1.8trillion). China’s import from Nigeria stood at $1.6 billion.

The Chinese are happy because Nigeria is the biggest market for its construction companies in Africa and third in terms of bilateral trade relations. The construction projects in the kitty of the Chinese companies in Nigeria in 2013 amounted to $4.3 billion with as many as 8,000 labourforce from China.
In Africa, imports from China for 2013 was $117.4bn, with a total trade volume with Africa put at $210.26bn, a 15.9 per cent increment from the previous year. China’s direct investment within the period was $3.5bn in Africa which accounted for 3.9 per cent of the total direct investment of China globally.
A day before China gave its 2013 reports of business dealing in Africa, Nigeria was still struggling to give its 3rd quarter (Q3) report for 2013. This is ridiculous.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Nigeria’s total external merchandise trade increased to about N5.65 trillion in the third quarter of 2013. The total exports declined by 4.5 per cent to about N3.75 trillion, compared to N3.74 trillion in the 2nd quarter, that was a drop in exports to the tune of N169.5 billion within the period.

On the other hand, the value of imports increased from 30.4 per cent to about N2.08 trillion in Q3 of 2013 compared to about N1.59 trillion in 2013.
The latest Foreign Trade Statistics Q3 2013, released in April 2014, shows crude oil exports in third quarter of 2013 rose from 13.9 per cent to about N3.08 trillion in the period under review, while the non-oil component fell sharply by 52.9 per cent to about N486.4 billion in Q3 compared to about N1.03 trillion in the previous quarter.

A breakdown of the exports merchants in Q3 showed Netherlands as Nigeria’s major trading partner with trade volume of about N512.4 billion, followed by India with N495.3 billion and United States in the third position with N278.5 billion. Brazil is fourth with N273.1 billion and Spain is fifth with N262.2 billion.
Nigeria’s imports analysis shows China as its major trade partner with imports vat N378.3 billion in Q3 of 2013. China was followed by United States, United Kingdom, Belgium and the Netherlands with import of N188.6 billion, respectively.

Although Nigeria is yet to disclose its 2013 Q4 or last year’s imports and exports transaction analysis even when we are already in the Q2 of 2014, the over- reliance on foreign countries to satisfy our taste and appetite is wrong and it has gulped trillions of naira.

For Nigeria to be importing food items when it has large acres of fertile land is unacceptable. We must produce what we need and consume what we produce. It is also high time we began to look at our engineers. What makes a Chinese engineer competent while ours are not! When we give jobs to others, we help them to solve their employment problem and compound ours. We urge the Nigerian government to re-examine this issue critically.