Ghana Tops List Of Largest Importing Countries Of Nigeria Products Despite Border Closure

Despite the controversies arising from the closure of the Nigerian land borders, Ghana has topped Nigeria’s major export trading partner in the third quarter (Q3) of 2019 by 17.%.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) disclosed this on Friday in its ‘Foreign Trade in Goods Statistics’ which shows that total trade grew by 6.8% from August to September 2019.

The federal government had announced in August the closure of its land borders which led to friction in economic activities between the affected countries.

According to NBS report, Ghana one of the West African countries affected has consumed 17.18% of the total export between August and September (Q3) with India following the list as Nigeria exported 14% of its goods.

Netherland followed in the third place having bought 14% of goods exported in the period, Spain received 8.60% of the total export with US importing 6.28% of export for the period.

However, 31% of total goods imported between August to September came from China, with 11% of the countries import coming from the United States.

India followed third place in the list of major import trading partners as Nigeria imported 7.49% of its goods from the country, as Netherland and Belgium received 6.80% and 3.98% of the total import for Q3 2019 respectively.

Similarly, trade between African countries is expected to grow  as the president of Nigeria has promised issuance of Visa to Africans upon arrival into the country in 2020 during the just concluded summit in Egypt.

Also, Joseph Attah, spokesman for the Nigerian customs service had said the “present phase” of the closure of the land borders would end on January 31, 2020, as the move will relax trade frictions between the sub regions.