Nigeria\u2019s merchandise exports to China fell by N601.82bn in the second quarter of 2026, despite Beijing\u2019s decision to grant Nigerian products zero-tariff access to its market from 1 May, worsening the trade imbalance between the two countries.\n<\/p>\n
An analysis of the National Bureau of Statistics\u2019 foreign trade reports for Q2 of 2025 and 2026 showed that Nigeria\u2019s exports to China declined by 54.30 per cent, from N1.108tn to N506.57bn.\n<\/p>\n
The decline occurred even as Nigeria\u2019s imports from China increased by N955.58bn, or 19.26 per cent, from N4.96tn to N5.92tn during the same period.\n<\/p>\n
Consequently, Nigeria\u2019s merchandise trade deficit with China widened by N1.56tn, or 40.43 per cent, from N3.85tn in Q2 of 2025 to N5.41tn in the corresponding period of 2026.<\/p>\n
The findings, based on The PUNCH\u2019s<\/em> analysis of the NBS trade statistics, indicate that Nigeria continued to buy substantially more goods from China than it sold to the Asian economic powerhouse, notwithstanding the preferential market access.\n<\/p>\n The imbalance meant that for every N1 worth of goods Nigeria exported to China in Q2, it imported approximately N11.68 worth of Chinese products, compared with N4.48 a year earlier.<\/p>\n China remained Nigeria\u2019s largest source of imports, accounting for 41.02 per cent of the country\u2019s total import bill of N14.42tn during the quarter, up from 32.45 per cent in the corresponding period of 2025.<\/p>\n The export contraction was particularly significant because Nigeria\u2019s overall exports increased by 18.77 per cent, from N22.75tn to N27.02tn, while exports to Asia rose by 17.55 per cent, from N7.42tn to N8.72tn.\n<\/p>\n China\u2019s share of Nigeria\u2019s exports to Asia consequently fell from 14.93 per cent to 5.81 per cent, representing a decline of 9.13 percentage points.\n<\/p>\n Its share of Nigeria\u2019s total exports also dropped from 4.87 per cent to 1.87 per cent, indicating that the Chinese market contributed substantially less to Nigeria\u2019s export earnings despite the broader expansion in international trade. <\/p>\n India, meanwhile, strengthened its position as Nigeria\u2019s leading Asian export destination, with shipments rising by 65.95 per cent from N1.98tn to N3.29tn. This suggests that the decline in exports to China was not part of a general contraction in Nigeria\u2019s trade with Asian markets.\n<\/p>\n Quarter-on-quarter figures also showed that exports to China declined by 12.99 per cent from N582.20bn in Q1 of 2026 to N506.57bn in Q2, even though the latter period included the first two months of the zero-tariff arrangement.\n<\/p>\n However, the tariff concession took effect only on 1 May, meaning that April exports preceded its implementation. The quarterly figures therefore cannot establish whether shipments increased or declined specifically during the two months of preferential access.\n<\/p>\n The trade statistics also measure the naira value of merchandise exports rather than export volumes, making it impossible to determine from the aggregate figures alone how much of the decline reflected changes in commodity prices, quantities or product composition.<\/p>\n China formally extended zero-tariff treatment to Nigeria and 19 other African countries on 1 May, 2026, under an arrangement scheduled to run until 30 April, 2028.\n<\/p>\n The decision expanded an earlier concession covering 33 African least developed countries, bringing the total number of African beneficiaries to 53.\n<\/p>\n Under the policy, qualifying Nigerian products enjoy duty-free entry into China, subject to customs requirements, rules of origin and applicable tariff quotas.\n<\/p>\n Announcing the arrangement in Abuja in March, the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Yu Dunhai, said, \u201cOn March 26th, China and Nigeria signed the framework agreement on economic partnership for shared development. So, we are now working together to ensure the zero-tariff policy takes effect on May 1st. That means starting from May 1st of this year, all Nigerian products, 100 per cent, will enjoy zero tariff when exported to China.\u201d\n<\/p>\n He explained that the initiative followed the signing of an economic partnership framework between Nigeria and China on 26 March, aimed at strengthening bilateral trade and investment.\n<\/p>\n According to him, the policy would particularly benefit key sectors such as agriculture and manufacturing by granting them improved access to the vast Chinese market.\n<\/p>\n Source: <\/p>\n Nigeria\u2019s merchandise exports to China fell by N601.82bn in the second quarter of 2026, despite Beijing\u2019s decision to grant Nigerian products zero-tariff access to its market from 1 May, worsening… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16442\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}