Nigeria’s imports from China rose to N14.15trn in 2024 – Report

Nigeria’s imports from China rose to N14.15 trillion in 2024, a report has said.

This is way more than the N6.6 trillion recorded in 2023.

Data from the latest Foreign Trade Statistics report published by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) indicated that the figure represents a year-on-year increase of N7.55 trillion or 114.3 per cent, reaffirming China’s position as Nigeria’s top import partner.

On the export side, Nigeria’s shipment to China rose from N891.38 billion in 2023 to N2.99 trillion in 2024, representing an increase of 236 per cent.

Despite this growth, China ranked only seventh among Nigeria’s top export destinations for the year.

Total bilateral trade between Nigeria and China stood at N17.14 trillion in 2024, up from N7.49 trillion in 2023, marking a 128.8 per cent increase in trade volume.

With imports making up over 82.5 per cent of this total, Nigeria maintained a significant trade deficit with the Asian giant.

A breakdown of Nigeria’s top imports from China in 2024 reveals a dominance of industrial, automotive, and technology-related products.

Leading the list were photovoltaic cells not assembled in modules or made up into panels, which amounted to N228.99 billion.

This was followed by spark-ignition internal combustion piston engines and electric motors valued at N121.15 billion, and communication-related machines for reception, conversion, and transmission of voice, images, or data, which came in at N114.43 billion.

Other major imports included buses or lorry-type vehicles (N96.48 billion), air conditioning machines (N77.57 billion), and various chemical and polymer materials such as polypropylene (N17.83 billion), glutamic acid and its salts (N48.57 billion).