World Trade Organization (WTO) has said Nigeria is the number one importer of commercial services in Africa.
This is contained in WTO’s data on the ‘Leading Exporters and Importers of Commercial services excluding intra-EU Trade 2020’, released on Friday.
The Geneva-based international trade organisation ranked Nigeria 25th commercial importer in the world but the first commercial importer in Africa followed by Egypt which was ranked 28th in the world.
Egypt and Morocco emerged number 26 and 27 respectively as the largest exporters of commercial services worldwide.
However, Nigeria is absent on the list of top exporters of commercial services in the world, while both countries (Egypt and Morocco) made the list of top 30 exporters worldwide among African countries.
United States also ranked first in the commercial importers’ list followed by China, United Kingdom and Japan; while US, UK, China, India and Singapore topped the exporters’ list.
Similarly, China, UK, Japan and Singapore joined US as the top countries for importation of goods in 2020.
WTO said;
The impact of the pandemic on merchandise trade volumes differed across regions in 2020, with most regions recording large declines in both exports and imports.
Regions rich in natural resources saw the largest declines in imports, including Africa (8.8 percent), South America (9.3 percent) and the Middle East (11.3 percent), probably due to reduced export revenues as oil prices fell around 35 percent.
The trade organization projects that Africa’s export will grow by 8.1 percent in 2021 and 3.0 percent in 2022, however, it says that depends on travel expenditures picking up over the course of 2021, which would strengthen demand for oil.
WTO further projects that Africa’s import will likewise grow to 5.5 percent in 2021 and 4.0 percent in 2022, while gross domestic product (GDP) market exchange rate will grow to 2.6 percent and 3.8 percent this year and in 2022 respectively— after a decline of 2.9 percent in 2020.
Read Also: Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala Makes History As First Female, First African DG Of WTO
Nigeria’s former Finance Minister, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, is the first African and first female director-general in the 26-year history of the WTO.
