EASIER TO FIX EXPORTS THAN IMPORTS.

It looks like Nigeria of today, it is easier to tackle her foreign exchange stranglehold from the export angle than the import one.
This is because, according to first quarter trade figures released by the National Bureau of statistics recently, the top fifteen items on Nigerian export trade list account for almost 90% of total exports.
On the other hand, in the case of imports, the Nigerian appetite is so diversified that first fifteen items take up only about 30.09% of imports.
Meaning to fix imports so as to reduce foreign exchange outflow as demanded by the times will need strategy that virtually takes in all forms of imports.
Of course, says the NBS, motor spirit import by the first quarter of this took up 15.6% of imports hence reduce that and you will do Nigeria and Nigerians a big favour. The next major item on this list was wheat with 2.9% of import value.
Others with above single digit share were CKD of motorcycles and cane sugar.
Fix the demand for them through higher value added or full production at home may also go some way but certainly not even the half way mark of the hard road Nigeria must bow travel.
In the case of exports, the burning desire now is to increase in flow. This may be easier to do because in spite of the drop in the world crude oil price, petroleum still contributed 64.7% of exports. Add 15.1% by Natural gas to that and between them, some 79.8% of exports still came from the petroleum industry.
Now that means that to fix the export angle, you either have to find ways to increase production of them for exports or find out and grow potential non-oil exports that could make Nigeria less dependent on them.
From the NBS figures after these petroleum items comes raw cocoa beans exports with 2.42% share followed by Gum Arabic with 1.45% and sesamium seeds with 1.08% contribution to the nation's export till.
In fact, the cocoa potential rises significantly when the share of roasted cocoa beans (0.83%) and cocoa paste 0.63%) are added to raw cocoa's contribution.
It looks like groundnut pyramid of pre and early independence days before the rise of crude oil, can not come up again in the new scheme of things because local demand by the ever growing population is very high.
However, the equations remains out of balance for Nigeria's foreign trade. Export value, says NBS, at N1269904.1m for 2016 first quarter amounted to 52.3% decrease on 2015 first quarter's N2665059.8m.
On the other hand the import bill went down by only 15.8% to N1454003m from N1727677.8m within the same period.

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