Nigeria’s imports from China rose by 183.91 percent from N530.98 billion in the first quarter of 2018 to N1.51 trillion in Q1 2022.
According to available reports, Nigeria was the 4th largest trading partner of China in Africa in 2011, and in the first 8 months of 2012, it was the 3rd.
In April 2018, Nigeria signed a $2.4-billion currency swap deal valid for 3 years. In 2019, bilateral trade between China and Nigeria reached $19.27 billion.
Data collated by TechEconomy reveals China is responsible for the bulk of imports into Nigeria, ranking number one on the list of top 10 countries in the five quarters under review.
Meanwhile, exports to China are questionable, as Nigeria was missing from the nation’s top 10 export destinations in Q1 2018 – Q1 2020, and Q1 2022.
Only in Q1 2021 did China rank in the top 10 export destinations when it ranked third with N190.11bn. In the same quarter, total imports from China were put at N2.01tn.
Some of the factors responsible for the low volume of exports in the country include lack of capacity building on the part of exporters; inadequate knowledge of the business, banks’ inability to fund exporters, and regulators’ cumbersome processes.
According to the NBS, imports from China include motorcycles, machines for the reception of voice, electrical apparatus for line telephony, or line telegraphy, mackerel, parts of machinery for working on rubber or plastics; crude salt, compressed salt used in animal feeding, antibiotics, herbicides and more.
According to data from China’s customs agency, the top five African countries that imported the most goods from China in 2021 were Nigeria $23 billion or 16 percent, South Africa $21 billion or 14 percent, Egypt $18 billion or 12 percent, Ghana $8 billion or 5 percent, and Kenya $7 billion. Their combined imports made up more than half of all imports of Chinese goods to Africa last year.
While, Nigeria is not among the top five African exporters to China in 2021 which include South Africa $33 billion or 31 percent of total exports to China, Angola $21 billion or 20 percent, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) $12 billion or 11 percent, Republic of Congo $5 billion or 5 percent and Zambia $4 billion or 4 percent. Their combined exports accounted for 71 percent of all exports to China last year.
