By Chinwendu Obienyi
Amid the endless fuel scarcity which has been affecting socio-economic activities across the country, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has revealed that Nigeria spent a total of $12.44 billion on the importation of 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 at 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.
The is contained in the apex bank’s October 2022 Economic Report posted on its website on Wednesday.
The report revealed that petroleum products import 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.
Analysts who spoke to Daily Sun in recent times said although Nigeria is one of Africa’s largest crude oil producers, its inability to revitalise its four refineries with a combined capacity of 445,000 barrels per day (bpd), and efficiently process oil, meant that the country will continue to import petroleum products.
Thus, the figure is very connected to the fact that the country heavily depended on petroleum products import within the period under review.
During the last Monetary Policy Committee meeting in 2022, CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, had revealed that the 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 domestic supply gap. Similarly, non-oil import 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 of 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.”