Abuja: Nigeria’s total merchandise trade for the first quarter of 2025 reached N36,024.66 billion, as reported by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). This figure marks a 6.19 per cent increase compared to N33,925.72 billion recorded in the same period of the previous year.
According to News Agency of Nigeria, the NBS Foreign Trade in Goods Statistics Report highlighted that this total trade figure also represented a slight decline of 1.58 per cent from the N36,604.83 billion reported in the fourth quarter of 2024. Total exports for the quarter amounted to N20,598.48 billion, making up 57.18 per cent of the total trade volume. This was a 7.42 per cent increase from the N19,176.19 billion recorded in the first quarter of 2024 and a 2.92 per cent rise from the fourth quarter of 2024, which stood at N20,014.33 billion.
Crude oil exports continued to dominate Nigeria’s export trade in Q1 2025, valued at N12,955.03 billion, accounting for 62.89 per cent of total exports. Non-crude oil exports were valued at N7,643.45 billion, representing 37.11 per cent of exports, with non-oil products contributing N3,167.88 billion or 15.38 per cent of total exports. Major export partners included India, The Netherlands, the United States of America, France, and Spain, with top exported commodities such as crude oil, liquefied natural gas, other petroleum gases, Urea, and standard quality cocoa beans.
On the import side, total imports stood at N15,426.17 billion, comprising 42.82 per cent of total trade in Q1 2025. This was a 4.59 per cent increase from N14,749.52 billion in the first quarter of 2024 but a 7.02 per cent decrease from the N16,590.51 billion recorded in Q4 2024. China was Nigeria’s leading import trading partner, followed by India, USA, The Netherlands, and The United Arab Emirates. Key imported commodities included gas oil, motor spirit, petroleum oils, cane sugar, and Durum wheat.
The merchandise trade balance for Q1 2025 remained positive at N5.172 billion, reflecting a significant increase of 51.07 per cent from Q4 2024.