The Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) says the country’s export rose by 20.02% in the first quarter of 2018 as against Q4 2017 figures.
The export value in the quarter under review was N4.693.34 trillion, compared to the Q4 2017 figure of (N3.9 trillion). When contrasted against the first quarter of 2017, the country’s export increased by 56.01% .
Its key export partner was Netherlands, who imported 20.5% of Nigeria’s exports. India came up next with 18.2 per cent and Spain imported the third highest, valued at 8.3 per cent. The US bought 8.2 per cent of Nigeria’s exports, while France purchased 6.3%.
Agricultural exports continued to top energy sales. Crops worth N73.24 billion were sold, while energy exports valued at N10.39 billion were bought in the said period.
The percentage of farm produce purchased from Nigeria rose by 63.84%, when compared to the value of goods sold in Q4,2017 (N44.70 billion).
All of this however, is a shocking contract due to the level of poverty and malnutrition currently experienced in the country. How can a country that exports so much food not have enough to feed its own citizens?
This is a direct abuse on the analogy that says "a man does not wash his eyes with spittle when in the middle of a river." Actually, Nigerians are!
THE United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, have raised alarm that 17million Nigerian children are stunted due to malnutrition.
UNICEF’s Nutrition Specialist of its Akure Office, Mrs Ada Ezeogu, confirmed this at the opening of a 2-day ‘Media dialogue on child nutrition in South West Nigeria’, in Ibadan, Oyo State.
Unicef Ezeogu noted that statistics “showed that 37 per cent of children representing over six million are malnourished, 43.6 per cent of estimated 40 million Nigerian children under age of 5yrs (from estimated population of 197 million) are stunted, while 19.4 per cent of children in the South West suffer same deficiency.
“This is worse than the South East and South South but better than the North. And we must do more as agenda setters to keep this issue on national discourse and help reverse the ugly trend”, she added.
Photo Credit: UNCHR