The Minister of Trade and Investment, Mr. Okey Enelamah, has launched the first edition of the Nigerian Annual Trade Policy Reports. The document was put together by the Nigerian Office for Trade Negotiations.
According to Enelamah, the report indicates that trade activities, both imports and exports, employ more than 10.8 million people while noting that the overall value of Nigerian trade between 2014 and 2015 decreased by approximately ₦7.4 billion from about ₦23.7 billion in 2014 to ₦16.3 billion in 2015 this was caused by the recession.
He also revealed that trade accounts for 18 percent of GDP, second only to agriculture which accounts for 29.1 percent of the GDP.
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He assured of the government’s readiness to negotiate a better deal with foreign investors than it has done so far, noting that investors who seek market access in Nigeria must link their investments to industrial activities to enable the creation of regional and global value chains.
In his words
“Going forward, access to Nigeria’s markets must no longer be for free. No free market access. Investors who seek market access in Nigeria to sell their goods and services must invest and connect to our industrial and manufacturing activities.’’
According to the full year 2017 GDP reports released by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew in Q4 2017 by 1.92% (year-on-year) in real terms, while maintaining its positive growth since the emergence of the economy from recession in Q2 2017.
The Quarter on quarter, real GDP growth was 4.29% while the year 2017 recorded a real annual growth rate of 0.83% higher by 2.42% than –1.58% recorded in 2016.
Total export value stood at ₦3,573.0 billion in Q3, 2017 representing an increase of 13.19% over Q2 2017 and 35% over Q3 2016 while the total imports value of ₦2,348.6 billion in Q3 2017 which was 10.51% lower than Q2 2017 and 4.68% lower than Q3 2016.
Revealing plans to boost trade relation Mr. Chinedu Osakwe, Director-General and Chief Negotiator, Nigerian Office for Trade Negotiations said attention would be accorded to deepening regional integration in ECOWAS noting that efforts are on to finalise the formulation of the Economic Diversification Index (EDI)-which will serve as a statistical measure that would enable greater rigour and precision in ascertaining by what degree the economy was being diversified away from oil receipts.
