Nigeria’s exports to China fall by N602bn despite zero tariffs

Detailed summary

Nigeria’s merchandise exports to China fell by N601.82bn in Q2 2026, despite Beijing granting Nigerian products zero-tariff access from May 1. Read More:…

Nigeria’s merchandise exports to China fell by N601.82bn in the second quarter of 2026, despite Beijing’s decision to grant Nigerian products zero-tariff access to its market from 1 May, worsening the trade imbalance between the two countries.

An analysis of the National Bureau of Statistics’ foreign trade reports for Q2 of 2025 and 2026 showed that Nigeria’s exports to China declined by 54.30 per cent, from N1.108tn to N506.57bn.

The decline occurred even as Nigeria’s imports from China increased by N955.58bn, or 19.26 per cent, from N4.96tn to N5.92tn during the same period.

Consequently, Nigeria’s 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.

The findings, based on The PUNCH’s 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.

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.

China remained Nigeria’s largest source of imports, accounting for 41.02 per cent of the country’s total import bill of N14.42tn during the quarter, up from 32.45 per cent in the corresponding period of 2025.

The export contraction was particularly significant because Nigeria’s 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.

China’s share of Nigeria’s exports to Asia consequently fell from 14.93 per cent to 5.81 per cent, representing a decline of 9.13 percentage points.

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