Nigerians living in Nigeria imported items worth not less than N18.12 trillion from the forex ban list of the Central Bank of Nigeria between 2016 and 2022, findings shown by Nigerian Foreign Trade reports of the National Bureau of Statistics.
The central bank had categorized about 41 import items as not valid for forex, which means that the importer will not be able to get forex from the apex bank for such items later in future.
The apex bank said the limitation was part of efforts to sustain the stability of the foreign exchange market, ensure effective utilization of foreign exchange and the derivation of maximum benefit from goods and services imported into the country.
However, these items were not banned by the Nigerian Customs Service, so they can still be imported into the country.
According to an analysis of Nigerian Foreign Trade reports of the National Bureau of Statistics from 2016 to 2022, items such as crude palm oil, vegetable products, animal products, meat, vegetable fats and oil, steel products, rubber, plastic, clothes, and textiles were imported from various countries.
Further breakdown analysis showed that crude palm oil got a total of N283.8 billion in seven years, with N39.5 billion spent in 2017, N20.2 billion in 2018, N19.1billion in 2019, N134.8 billion in 2021 and N70.2 billion in 2022. The above mentioned items didn’t record any transactions in 2016 and 2020.
Vegetable products got N4.8 trillion with N283.2 billion spent in 2016, N295.8 billion in 2017, N407.6 billion in 2018, N443 billion in 2019, N1.1trillion in 2020, N945.4 billion in 2021, and N1.3 trillion in 2022.
Animal products and essentials recorded trade of N3.3 trillion with N664.3 billion imported in 2016, N190.9 billion in 2017, N365.3 billion in 2018, N221 billion in 2019, N793.5 billion in 2020, N485.8 billion in 2021 and N549.6 billion in 2022.
Mackerel meat recorded a total of N491 billion with N11.2 billion in 2016, N27.5 billion in 2017, N239.5 billion in 2018, N37.92 billion in 2019, N62.73 billion in 2020, N95.3 billion in 2021, and N17.1 billion in 2022.
Other items restricted from accessing forex at the central bank official market include blue whiting’s frozen meat, which recorded a total of N204bn with N10.5bn worth of goods imported in 2017, N15.2bn in 2018, N21.86bn in 2019, N49.6bn in 2020, N65.5bn in 2021 and 41.5bn in 2022. The product, however, didn’t record any purchases in 2016.
Imported vegetable fats and oil goods got a total of N2.1trn with N35.5bn spent in 2016, N954.4bn in 2017, N72.9bn in 2018, N62.1bn in 2019, N482.3bn in 2020, N292.6bn in 2021 and N165.9bn in 2022.
Others, like steel products, other types of fish and clothes, recorded single transactions in 2017, 2020 and 2021 with N31.9bn, N24.6bn and N62.75bn, respectively.
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