Nigeria Business Now

A study is bullish on Nigeria’s exports in the next decade, with its exports projected to hit $127 billion by 2030.

The country is expected to see a much faster than average yearly growth rate at 9.5 per cent.

Agriculture and food production, the report conducted by Standard Chartered says, will lead the country’s export at 10.1 per cent yearly growth rate from 2021 to 2030.

The report says global trade will reach 32.6 trillion at the turn of 2030 at a growth rate of five per cent.

Then, Nigeria’s trade growth will almost double the global trend with the country’s export-to-global-trade ratio amounting to almost four per cent.

Trade corridors anchored in the whole of Africa, Asia, and the Middle East will outpace global trade growth by up to four percentage points, driving combined trade volume in these regions to $14.4 trillion or 44 per cent of global trade in seven years, the report says.

The report places Nigeria as a country to watch in global trade trends in the decade.

“As a result of rapid growth, India is the largest destination for Nigeria’s exports. Export corridors to Poland, Indonesia and Malaysia are among the fastest-growing,” it notes.

Poland’s export is pegged at 13.4 per cent yearly growth rate while its import is projected at 9.8 per cent. India is expected to come next at a growth rate of 12.2 per cent.

“Nigeria is expected to grow exports from its key sectors, by supporting capacity expansions and entering new markets. The Nigerian government is focusing on building quality logistics infrastructure to enhance trade capabilities.

“The government launched the ‘National Integrated Infrastructure Master Plan’ – a private-sector driven multi-trillion dollar development plan that seeks to enhance the country’s infrastructure over the next two decades. One of the projects undertaken by the plan is the $1 billion Lekki Deep Sea Port – the first deep sea port in Nigeria, and has the capacity to handle 1.2 million containers annually once completed,” the report observes.

Standard Chartered says agriculture, with a share of four per cent of the total export, will lead the growth at 10.1 per cent while the domineering crude and petroleum (82 per cent share) will expand at 9.6 per cent from 2021 to 2030.

Natural gas, which it shares 12 per cent, is forecast to 9.3 yearly growth in the decade.

“The research included a survey of more than 100 global business leaders in 13 markets who shared the following as their top challenges: rising geopolitical conflicts and tensions, high and volatile energy and commodity prices, poor infrastructure quality, high inflation and sanctions/tariffs/export banks.

Commenting on the research findings, CEO of Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria Limited, Korede Adenowo, notes: “Global trade is set to drive the next decade of growth. We aim to help our clients improve access to finance and achieve ESG compliance across their entire supply chains. Digital supply chain finance solutions will play a game-changing role in achieving these goals and enable sustainable trade growth across developing economies.”