The National Bureau of Statistics explained that it sources Foreign Direct Investments data for states from the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The NBS disclosed this in a response to the Kaduna State Government which challenged figures that showed that the state was one of the 24 states that did not attract any Foreign Direct Investment in 2021.
Nairametrics had earlier reported that only Abuja and 7 states in Nigeria were able to attract foreign investments in the first quarter of 2021 leaving 29 other states with zero foreign investments, according to the NBS report.
What Kaduna State is saying
The Kaduna Investment Promotion Agency said in a statement posted on social media that Kaduna State Capital importation for the year 2021 was not captured in the NBS report. It said the report similarly missed the attraction of Ziplino, a US-based medical drone supply company, whose business address is in Lagos state but are now operating in Kaduna state.
- It added that “given that Kaduna state attracted this $1.4 million worth of investment in the said year, the state should not be on the list of states that had failed to attract FDI’s in the year 2021.
- “We wish to inform you that for the sake of clarity, and to avoid future misunderstandings, an official investment portfolio would be announced next week”
- It stated that the state attracted both actualised and announced investments of $24.4 million. It said that in the year 2021, a total of 6 investments were announced, 5 of which were actualised. Amongst the 5 investments actualised, 4 were Domestic Direct Investments while 1 was Foreign Direct Investment.
NBS’ reaction
The NBS however responded to Kaduna States’ submission that the Central Bank of Nigeria is its primary data source for the Capital Importation Report which it publishes.
“The @cenbank is the primary data source of the Capital Importation Report published by the NBS. We only publish Capital Importation figures that are reported by the Central Bank,” the NBS stated.