The value of manufactured goods imported into the country fell to N2.448 trillion in the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2022, as the government tightens the noose on the importation of certain items into the country.
This represents an 18.43 percent Year-on-Year (YoY) decline compared to N3.001 trillion recorded in the corresponding period in 2021 and 45.6 percent of total imports (N5.363 trillion) during the period.
This also represents a 14.11 percent Quarter-on-Quarter (QoQ) decline against the value recorded in the third quarter of the year (Q3’22).
Report on the Foreign Trade in Goods Statistics for Q4’22 by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), however, indicates that the value of manufactured goods represents the highest import during the period, followed by other oil products and raw materials imports with a total value of N1.88 trillion and N559.25 billion respectively.
The NBS data also showed that used vehicles topped the list of manufactured goods imported into the country during the period at N54.65 billion (mainly from the United States of America and Italy), followed by filters imported mainly from China and India with N50.04 billion import value.
Motorcycles and cycles fitted with an auxiliary motor, petrol fuel, capacity >50<250cc, CKD worth N33.92 billion and N12.51 billion were also imported from India and China respectively.
“Other goods imported in this category were ‘other medicaments not elsewhere specified’ from India valued at N18.34 billion and ‘other herbicides, anti sprouting products and plants from China valued at N38.76 billion.
Further analysis showed that the value of imported manufactured goods outpaced its export value.
Meanwhile, the value of manufactured goods exports was valued at N311.01 billion in Q4, 2022, showing a decline of 21.36 percent compared to the value recorded in Q4’21 (N395.48 billion).
However, the export value increased QoQ by 136.58 percent to N131.46 billion in Q3’22. The major export goods in this category were ‘floating or submersible drilling or production platforms’ exported to Namibia valued at N92.91 billion, followed by ‘unwrought aluminum’. alloys valued at N16.76 billion and N2.86 billion to Japan and China respectively and ‘cigarettes containing tobacco’ exported to Niger Republic valued at N9.15 billion.
