By Tony Tagbo, Abuja 

Drop in import bill in the second quarter of this year has reduced the country’s merchandize trade by N160bn in the second quarter of this year.

Data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Thursday showed that in the second quarter of 2022, Nigeria’s total trade stood at N12.84trn.

This was lower than the N13trn recorded in the first quarter of 2022, but was higher than the N9.71trn recorded in the corresponding period of 2021.

Total Exports were N7.41trn of which Re-exports stood at N9.63bn, while total imports stood at N5.43trn.

In the quarter under review, total exports increased by 4.31 per cent when compared to the N7.1trn recorded in the first quarter of 2022 and by 47.55 per cent of the N5.01trn recorded in the second quarter of 2021.

On the other hand, total imports decreased by 7.89 per cent in the second quarter of 2022 when compared to the N5.9trn recorded in the first quarter of 2022, and grew by 15.83 per cent when compared to the N4.69trn recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2021.

In the quarter under review, the top five re-export destinations were Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Cameroun and Turkey.

The most re-exported commodity groups were ‘Lightvessels, fire-floats, floating cranes, and other vessels not specified in 8905’ (N2.99bn) followed by ‘Mechanically propelled vessels for the transport of goods valued at N2.55bn and ‘Mech. propelled vessels for the transport of goods, gross tonnage not specified in 8901’ amounting to N2.53bn.

The top five export destinations in the second quarter of 2022 were India with a share of 14.85 per cent, followed by Spain with 13.98 per cent, Netherlands with 12.35 per cent, the United States of America and Indonesia with 8.93 per cent and 8.45 per cent respectively.

Altogether, the top five countries accounted for a share of 58.55 per cent of the total N7.41trn exports.