Spain was Nigeria’s top export destination in Q3 2022, according to recently-released foreign trade data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
India has for years led the chart of top export destinations for Nigeria. However, Spain displaced India receiving N873.62 billion worth of export goods from Nigeria, good for a 14.72% share of all exports.
Notably, this figure depicted a 15.6% decrease in exports to Spain in Q2, despite a year-on-year increase of 39.3%. Included in Nigeria’s export to Spain is N293 billion of non-oil export.
The next highest recipient of exports was India, which was Nigeria’s top destination in Q2 2022. Exports to the sub-continent fell by a significant 43.7% from Q2, amounting to N619.22 billion.
Rounding out the top five export destinations are France, which received 7.25% of all exports, worth N430.40 billion and a 34% increase from Q2; the Netherlands, receiving 7.09% of exports, but declining 54% from Q2 at N420.41 billion, and; Indonesia, received a 7.00% share at N415.16 billion, a 34% decline from Q2 2022.
The top five countries accounted for 46.49% of all exports for a total of N5.93 trillion, and oil and gas products made up a dominant share.
In terms of regions, Europe continued to lead as Nigeria’s top export destination with about N2.6 trillion in trade in Q3.
Africa was the second largest export destination for Nigeria with about N812 billion while the Americas was third with N723.3 billion.
Crude Oil Dominates: Four of the top five export destinations had crude oil products make up at least 90% of all exports:
India (90.3%), France (96.1%), the Netherlands (94.3%), and Indonesia (97.8%). 66.4% of all Spanish imports from Nigeria were crude oil-based.
While Nigeria is presently producing and exporting less than is ideal, it is clear that a vibrant market for Nigeria’s crude remains, particularly in Asia and Europe. Both regions accounted for 29.8% and 45.62% of all oil and gas exports.
It would not be remiss to attribute the reliance on Nigerian crude in these regions to the Russia/Ukraine conflict.
Apart from Europe, the United States and African countries such as Ivory Coast and South Africa are also major export destinations from Nigeria.
The African countries have crude oil or related products that makeup almost the entirety of the imports from Nigeria, with nearly 99% of all South Africa’s imports from Nigeria being oil and gas
Russia Ukraine dynamics: In 2021, the European Union imported over USD 108 billion worth of energy from Russia alone. The region got two-fifths of all its natural gas and over 25% of its crude oil from the Eastern European giant.
The war saw sanctions imposed on Russia by most European countries and the further vandalisation of the Nord.
Stream pipelines has meant that Europe has had to look elsewhere for oil and gas, with Nigeria becoming a beneficiary.
Europe’s import from Nigeria totaling N8.9 trillion in the first 9 months of this year already surpasses the N7.4 trillion reported in the whole of 2021.
It is also no surprise that among the top export destination for Nigeria, 5 of the top ten are from Europe with a combined N2.2 trillion this quarter alone for crude oil exports only.
Italy, Portugal, France, and the Netherlands make up Nigeria’s other export destinations asides from Spain.
Lower imports: In spite of the readily-available market, Nigerian oil and gas imports fell 18.5% from Q2 2022, a loss of about N1.24 trillion, a signifier of the country’s anemic production.
Year-on-year, the country’s crude oil production has fallen 23.6%, an average of 1.2 million barrels per day as against Q3 2021’s 1.6 million barrels per day.
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