The Central Bank of Nigeria disclosed this in its monthly economic report for the month of April, which was obtained on Friday.
This was attributed to the fall in the average price of Nigeria’s reference crude, the bonny light, to $52.48 per barrel in 2020 Q1, from $65.87 and $64.90 per barrel in 2019 Q1 and 2019 Q4 respectively. The main drivers of non-oil exports included cashew nuts, cocoa beans, sesame seeds, with the Netherlands, Cote d’Ivoire, Brazil and the USA as the major destinations.
The development was attributed largely to the 70.8 per cent decrease in receipts from the industrial sector, which stood at $30.07m in April 2020.