Importers have been purchasing agricultural, animal and other products from Asian, European Union and African countries, sourcing dollars on the parallel market after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) banned foreign‑exchange (FX) allocation for 41 items. Between 2016 and 2022, Nigerians imported at least nine of those items, worth a total of N18.12 trillion, despite the ban. The CBN’s restriction, intended to stabilise the FX market, ensure efficient use of foreign exchange and maximise benefits from imported goods and services, does not constitute a customs prohibition; the items remain legally importable.
Analysis of the National Bureau of Statistics’ (NBS) foreign‑trade reports for 2016‑2022 shows that commodities such as crude palm oil, vegetable products, animal products, meat, vegetable fats and oil, steel, rubber, plastic, clothing and textiles were imported from a range of source countries. Crude palm oil accounted for N283.8 billion over seven years, with peaks in 2021 (N134.8 billion) and 2022 (N70.2 billion). Vegetable products totalled N4.8 trillion, reaching N1.3 trillion in 2022. Animal products amounted to N3.3 trillion, while mackerel meat recorded N491 billion in imports. Other restricted items included frozen blue‑whiting meat (N204 billion) and vegetable fats and oil (N2.1 trillion). Smaller‑scale imports comprised steel products, other fish varieties and clothing, with single‑year transactions of N31.9 billion, N24.6 billion and N62.75 billion respectively. Rubber and plastic imports reached N5.15 trillion, and textiles N1.67 trillion, with yearly expenditures fluctuating markedly between 2016 and 2022.
Country‑by‑country data reveal that most products originated from Europe and Asia. For crude palm oil, Malaysia was the principal supplier (N129.7 billion), followed by India, China, Ivory Coast, Singapore, Indonesia, Colombia and Ghana. Mackerel imports came mainly from the Netherlands (N53.6 billion), Russia, Japan, Mauritania, Ireland, Chile, Norway, the Faroe Islands, Morocco and South Korea. Frozen blue‑whiting meat was sourced chiefly from the Netherlands, Russia, Ireland, the Faroe Islands, Poland, Chile and Norway. Steel and iron imports recorded a single transaction from Germany (N31.6 billion). Rubber and plastic imports in Q3 2018 were dominated by France, Spain, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Germany, while textile imports in Q4 2018 and Q2 2019 were led by China, followed by South Korea, the United States, Taiwan and Kenya. In Q2 2021, rubber imports from China amounted to N368 million, with additional supplies from Luxembourg, Taiwan, Italy and India.
Prof. Pat Utomi, a political economist, attributes Nigeria’s heavy import reliance to inadequate domestic production, driven by worsening insecurity and restrictive government policies. He notes that staple imports such as food products and motor fuels are items the country could export, given its agricultural potential and oil abundance, but farm access is hampered by insecurity. Kabir Ibrahim, national president of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), concurs that Nigeria has not yet achieved food self‑sufficiency and stresses that a lower import bill than export earnings would signal true food security. AFAN’s Southwest zone chairman, Dr. Femi Oke, expressed disappointment that food imports have risen despite bans on certain commodities. Ibrahim, however, praised the CBN’s FX ban for fostering partial self‑sufficiency in rice and encouraging domestic production where competitive advantage exists, while acknowledging the need to continue importing items like milk and wheat that Nigeria cannot yet produce efficiently.
Muda Yusuf, director of the Centre for Promotion of Private Enterprise, criticised the CBN’s list as an “aberration” that conflicts with Nigeria’s established trade policy, which should be the sole domain of fiscal authorities. He warned that the divergent list creates confusion, pressures the parallel FX market and widens the gap between official and parallel rates. Johnson Chukwu, managing director of Cowry Asset Management, urged the government to prioritise local production, arguing that sufficient domestic supply would lower prices and reduce the incentive to import. John Udeagbala, president of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, cited shortages in raw materials for his vegetable‑oil refinery as evidence of inadequate local supply. Gabriel Idahosa, deputy president of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, linked declining local production and a growing population to rising import dependence, noting that the parallel‑market FX costs have driven up prices dramatically—e.g., a crate of ice fish rising from N5,000 to N22,000—fueling inflation and multidimensional poverty.
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