Nigeria’s trade exports to India decline by 61% in one year

The latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reveals that Nigeria’s exports to India have plummeted by a staggering 61% over the past year.

This comes as President Bola Ahmed Tinubu leads a corporate delegation from Nigeria to India for a business conference on the sidelines of the G20 summit held in the country. The conference is aimed at attracting foreign direct investment to the country.

India was Nigeria’s top export destination in the first half 2022, however, recent data indicates that it has now slipped out of the top 5. India stopped being Nigeria’s lead export destination in the third quarter of 2022 as Spain took over.

According to NBS data, Nigeria’s trade exports to India in the second quarter of 2023 amounted to N463.3 billion, making India Nigeria’s sixth-largest export destination.

Nigeria is currently running a thin trade surplus with India of just over N5 billion in the first half of 2023, a sharp decline from about N1.2 trillion same period in 2022.

The primary cause of this significant drop is the falling crude oil exports, which at their peak, accounted for as much as a trillion naira in trade between Nigeria and India.

Nigeria seems to have lost much of its export market share in India to Russia due to the ongoing Russian-Ukraine war.

Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), which accounts for about one-fourth of India’s total gas demand, is also largely imported, making India the fourth-largest importer of LNG. The country has a growing demand for both oil and natural gas.

President Tinubu’s visit to India has largely been about attracting investments into the country through foreign direct investments. However, the immediate need might be to get India to start importing Nigeria’a crude oil which is critical to helping Nigeria stabilize its forex inflows.