FX crisis: Nigeria’s foreign trade payments drop by 57% to $391.91m

Nigeria’s Letter of Credit payments, used for goods importation dropped by 57.04 percent to $391.91 million in the last seven months of 2024 compared to $912.35 million in the same period of 2023.

This is contained in CBN’s weekly data on international payments released on its website.

Analysis of the data showed that in the period under review, the country’s LC payment declined by about $520.44 million.

Accordingly, the highest LC payments in the year so far were recorded in February at $102.59m, followed by July at $79.65m and $58.33m in January

Also, in March, LCs payments stood at $43.53m compared to $269m in the same month in 2023, rose to $54.02m in April 2024 and dropped to $21.48m in May before rising to $32.26m in June.

Meanwhile, the development was blamed on factors like the exit of multinationals, skyrocketing customs duties, and unstable foreign exchange, which hampered Nigeria’s foreign trade in the period under review.

Recall that the Director of Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise, Dr Muda Yusuf had urged the Nigerian government to peg the customs duty exchange rate at N1000 per dollar amid foreign exchange volatility.