Nigeria’s import surged by 54% year-on-year to N6.85 trillion in the first quarter of 2021 from N4.44 trillion recorded in the corresponding period of 2020. This was contained in the foreign trade report, recently released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The recent import data also represents a 15.6% increase compared to N5.93 trillion recorded in the previous quarter. Meanwhile, total trade in the period stood at N9.76 trillion, 14% higher than N8.55 trillion recorded in Q1 2020. Nigeria recorded its highest quarterly import in over 12 years, pushing the country’s trade deficit to its highest ever, based on our tracker.