According to the U.K.’s Department of Trade and Business, total trade in goods and services between Nigeria and the UK was £7.6 billion in the first quarter, up £2.5 billion or 48.4% from the record set in the fourth quarter of 2022.
In Q4 2022, Nigeria’s share of UK imports from Nigeria was £4.3 billion, up 31.6 percent or £1 billion, while overall imports from Nigeria totaled £3.3 billion, up 78.1 percent or £1.4 billion.
Nigeria accounted for just 0.4% of all commerce with the UK, making it the 37th largest trading partner. Nigeria received £3.4 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) from the UK in 2021, making up 0.2% of all FDI sent abroad from the UK.
FDI coming into the UK from Nigeria was £806 million in 2021.
£2.9 billion (67.1%) and £1.4 billion (32.9%) of all UK exports to Nigeria were in the form of services. Compared to Q4 of 2022, UK exports of goods to Nigeria dropped by 19.7%, or £346 million, at the end of Q1 2023, while UK exports of services rose by 91.7%, or £1.4 billion.
The overall value of UK imports from Nigeria in Q1 2023 was £3.3 billion, up £1.4 billion (or 78.1%) from Q4 2022. In the first quarter of 2023, the UK imported £2.2 billion (66.6%) worth of products and £1.1 billion (33.4%) worth of services from Nigeria.
Compared to Q4 of 2022, the UK’s imports of commodities from Nigeria rose by 76.3%, or £949 million, over the same period, while its imports of services from Nigeria jumped by 81.8%, or £494 million, from the same quarter the previous year.
In Q4 of 2022, the UK had a trade surplus of £1.4 billion, whereas with Nigeria, it was only £994 million. By the end of the first quarter of 2023, the UK’s trade-in goods deficit with Nigeria was £781 million, while the trade-in goods surplus for the same period was £514 million.
In the meantime, the study stated that the UK reported a £1.8 billion trade in services surplus with Nigeria at the end of Q1 2023, up from an £895 million trade in services surplus in Q4 2022.
Only trade in goods data was available, and it revealed that while UK imports of products from Nigeria rose by 10.7% over the same period in 2021, UK exports of goods to Nigeria fell by 17.4% last year.
At the end of Q1 2023, the top five goods exported from the UK to Nigeria were: mechanical power generators (£34.7 million, 2.5 percent); refined oil (£741.9 million, 52.6 percent); textile fabrics (£50.7 million, 3.6 percent); toilet and cleansing preparations (£49.6 million, 3.5 percent); and general industrial machinery (£32.5 million, 2.3 percent).
Crude oil (£1.0 billion, or 47.7% of total imports into the UK from Nigeria during the period under review) is the most popular commodity, followed by refined oil (£611.8 million, or 27.9%), gas (£475.4 million, or 21.7%), metal ores and scrap (£8.3 million, or 0.4%), and scientific instruments (£5.2 million, or 0.2%).
In terms of products and services, Nigeria’s overall market share held by the UK in 2022 was 7.0%. This represents a 1.2% rise over 2021. Approximately 3,900 businesses registered with the UK VAT board exported goods to Nigeria in 2021, whilst only 500 businesses registered with the UK VAT board imported goods from the nation.
