Today’s map documents the primary imports and exports, and primary export destinations, of all African countries (excluding Swaziland, for which there is no recent data). China leads the pack as the primary export destination for fourteen countries, while nine countries export primarily to Europe. Most of the latter are in North Africa, unsurprising given those countries’ geographical proximity as well as historical and linguistic ties to Europe.
Inter-African trade is important as well—13 countries have a fellow African country as their primary export destination—and if the various regional economic communities on the continent are able to deepen their integration, that number is likely to rise. The United States is the primary export destination for only Nigeria, and the great majority (11.6 billion USD of 11.7 billion USD’s worth of trade in 2013) of its Nigerian imports is oil. Those imports fell more than 38 percent between 2012 and 2013, however, so if the trend continues the United States may soon no longer be Nigeria’s primary export destination.
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