The Central Bank of Nigeria says that the country spent about $12 billion importing petroleum products between January and October 2022.
The CBN also stated that the country’s gross federation receipts which stood at N1,178.64 billion during the period under review exceeded the level in September 2022 by 7.0 per cent, but below the target of N1,580.34 billion by 25.4 per cent.
This is contained in the apex bank’s October 2022 Economic Report posted on its website on Wednesday.
The report revealed that petroleum products imports gulped $1.24 billion in October and $3.73 billion and $3.26 billion in Q3 2022 and Q2 2022 respectively.
A look at the bank’s economic report for the first quarter (Q1) of 2022, showed that $4.21 billion was spent on petroleum products import.
This means that the country spent a total of $12.44 billion on oil imports in the first 10 months of 2022.
During the last Monetary Policy Committee meeting in 2022, CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, had revealed that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, led to a significant increase in oil prices, with Nigeria being unable to fully benefit from the situation as it spends huge amounts on imported petroleum products annually.
The bank’s 2022 economic report said; “Higher import bills, particularly, for petroleum products, coupled with rising global prices, pushed merchandise import northward. Consequently, aggregate import increased by 34.9 per cent to $4.64 billion, from $3.44 billion in the preceding month.
The increase in imports was driven by the rise in the import of petroleum products to $1.24 billion, from $0.12 billion in September 2022, to bridge the domestic supply gap. Similarly, non-oil imports rose by 2.5 per cent to $3.41 billion, from $3.32 billion in the preceding month. In terms of share, non-oil imports accounted for 73.4 per cent, while oil constituted the balance 26.6 per cent of the total.
Provisional data revealed that merchandise imports fell by 8.9 per cent to $11.36 billion in 2022 Q3, relative to $12.48 billion in the preceding quarter. The development was observed, majorly, in the importation of non-oil products, which declined by 17.3 per cent to $7.63 billion, from $9.22 billion. Conversely, import of petroleum products increased by 14.6 per cent to $3.73 billion from $3.26 billion.
The increase in petroleum products import was to cover domestic supply shortages in the period.
The share of non-oil import remained dominant, accounting for 67.2 per cent of the total, while petroleum products constituted the balance of 32.9 per cent.”
