NIGERIA’s total imports from Malta rose to a new worryingly high N766.81 billion in the third quarter of 2024.

Malta, a small Southern European country, became a subject of controversy earlier in July when some officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), oil traders, and terminals were accused of having a blending plant in Malta.

The group chief executive officer of NNPCL, Mele Kyari, faulted the allegations and claimed he did not own a blending plant in Malta, The ICIR reported.

But Nigeria’s reliance on petroleum importation from Malta and several other European countries, analysts say, has been a major reason causing the value of the naira to depreciate against the dollar.

“If the Dangote Refinery starts to work, it means there will be no business or Malta. Malta is the reason why your naira is weak,” a development economist, Kalu Aja, had said.

“This government has not shown it will be accountable and transparent. Since the face-off between Dangote and the regulators, have you heard any official response from the Presidency or even the Federal Ministry of Petroleum? What does that tell you?

“They know that the importation is draining the foreign exchange for the manufacturers and weakening the naira, yet, they are not speaking up,” an economist and consultant to the British Department for International Development (DFID), Celestine Okeke, told The ICIR.

The ICIR can report that the Dangote Refinery commenced petrol production in September, in the last month of the third quarter amid calls to end importation of petroleum products by the state-owned oil company and other licensed petroleum marketers.

Analysis of the foreign trade statistics reports released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in the third quarter of 2024 revealed that imports from Malta rose by per cent to N766.81 billion, compared to N561.37 billion in the third quarter of 2023.

Although the statistics office did not specify the product imported from Malta in the review quarter, but earlier accusation by the chairman of Dangote Industries Limited, Aliko Dangote, against NNPCL over opening a blending plant most likely proved that petroleum products were being imported from Malta.

The NBS report stated that imports from Malta accounted for 5.23 per cent of Nigeria’s total imports of N14.67 trillion in the third quarter. The country was Nigeria’s fifth largest import trading partner, it stated.

“Analysis by trading partners reveals that imports from China were valued at N3,574.79 billion, representing 24.36 per cent of total imports. This was followed by imports from India with N1,662.68 billion (11.33 per cent of total imports), Belgium with imports valued at N1,632.89 billion or 11.13 per cent of total imports, United States of America with goods valued at N1,024.44 billion (6.98 per cent of total imports) and goods from Malta valued at N766.81 billion or 5.23 per cent of total imports,” the statistics office disclosed.

The figure recorded in the third quarter of 2024 is the highest value of import from Malta on record, The ICIR can report.

In the first and second quarters of this year, no record of import from Malta was reported by the NBS.

In the fourth quarter of 2023, Malta fell within the top ten import destination countries with Nigeria, standing in the eighth position below Singapore, China, Belgium, India, and the United States at the top five positions.

Its share of Nigeria’s total imports was at 2.07 per cent with total imports at N291.979 billion in that quarter.

In the third quarter of 2023, Malta was in the fourth position with a 6.64 per cent share or N561.37 billion share of Nigeria’s imports, coming below China, Belgium, and India.

In the second quarter, Malta imported products worth N181.55 billion, representing a 3.17 per cent share of its total imports to Nigeria and falling in the sixth position.

In the first quarter of 2023, the NBS did not report Malta as among the import destinations for Nigeria.

The latest report from NBS, therefore shows that Nigeria’s imports from Malta has increased significantly.