The local content initiative of the Federal Government has started to yield benefits, as the country earned N18.8 billion from export of electrical energy as well as vessels and other floating structures in the fourth quarter of 2017.
Disclosing this in its Fourth Quarter 2017 Foreign Trade Statistics, the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, stated that the export of these items accounted for 0.48 per cent of total export in the fourth quarter.
Specifically, vessels and other floating structures export fetched the country N9.468 billion, while the country earned N9.33 billion from the export of electrical energy, ranking ninth and tenth respectively on the export schedule.
The report stated that the country recorded total trade of N6.022 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2017, representing a decline of 0.7 per cent over that of third quarter 2017, and an increase of 13.9 per cent over the fourth quarter of 2016.
The report disclosed that for the entire 2017, Nigeria recorded total trade of N23.16 trillion, rising by 33.5 per cent compared to N17.345 trillion recorded in 2016.
To this end, the report revealed that the country’s trade balance for the fourth quarter of 2017 stood at a surplus of N1.798 trillion compared to the surplus of N1.088 trillion recorded in the preceding quarter and the surplus of N671.30 billion in the corresponding quarter of 2016.
“For full year 2017, trade balance stood at N4.036 trillion compared to a negative trade balance of N290.1 billion in 2016,” the report noted.
It added that total imports value at N2.112 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2017 was 15.1 per cent less than N2.49 trillion recorded in the third quarter of 2017, and 8.5 per cent lower than N2.308 trillion recorded in the fourth quarter of 2016.
The report declared that solid minerals imports grew by 5.19 per cent in fourth quarter 2017 to N15.2 billion, compared to N14.5 billion recorded in third quarter 2017 and 9.2 per cent above the N13.9 billion recorded in the fourth quarter of 2016.
For full year 2017, the report added that imported solid minerals increased by 372.2 per cent to N235.1 billion from N49.7 billion in 2016.
It added that, “Energy goods imports grew significantly by 950 per cent to N138.1 million in fourth quarter 2017, higher than N13.15 million recorded in the third quarter of 2017 and 57,176 per cent higher than N0.24 million recorded in the fourth quarter of 2016″.
For full year 2017, the report disclosed that imported energy goods increased to N187.17 million from N8.07 million in 2016.
Furthermore, the report stated that India accounted for N571.54 billion of Nigeria’s crude oil export in the fourth quarter of 2017, followed by the United States of America with N488.6 billion, while the Netherlands purchased crude oil worth N366.2 billion from Nigeria in the period under review.
