Nigeria’s economy attracted $2.58 billion worth of investments between January and March, 2022, a significant drop from the $8.41 billion recorded in the same period in 2021.
According to the investment announcements captured by the Nigeria Investment Promotion Council (NIPC), Nigeria recorded a sharp drop in investments in Q1 2022 as investors’ commitments declined by 226% compared with Q1 2021.
A breakdown of the three months’ announced investments shows that investors committed a total of $1.22 billion in January. In February, the value of total announced investments stood at $0.91 billion, while $0.45 was recorded in March.
According to NIPC, the $2.58 billion investments recorded in Q1 2022 were committed to a total of 33 projects across 5 States of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The Manufacturing sector got the lion share of the investments as it received $1.1 billion, representing 45% of the total investments announced in the first quarter.
The agriculture sector got $0.64 billion, 25% of the total investments announced.
The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector was the third favourite sector for investors in Q1 as it attracted $0.52 billion, representing 20% of the total sum.
Projects in the Transportation sector attracted $0.12 billion, which is 5% of the total announced investments for the quarter, while other sectors shared $0.15 billion, representing 6%.
In terms of destinations, $105 billion, representing 41% of the total investments, went into projects in Sokoto State. Lagos State got $0.88 billion, representing 34% of the total investments, while projects in FCT and Rivers State were $0.06 billion and $0.05 billion, respectively, which is 2% apiece of the total investments. Other states shared $0.54 billion, representing 21% of the investments.
What you should know
- Global Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) has been projected to drop by 50% this year, being the worst in the last 20 years.
- The immediate past Executive Secretary of the NIPC, Yewande Sadiku, made this projection recently, adding that global FDI is expected to plummet from $1.54 trillion recorded in 2019 to $924 billion in 2020 and further slump to $831.6 billion in 2021.
- Sadiku said the downturn in the global FDI flow, occasioned by COVID-19, is not expected to record recovery earlier than 2022.
This is a worrying trend that needs to be addressed urgently.
The NIPC needs to do more to attract investment into the country and help boost the economy.
The decline in investments is due to several factors, including the global pandemic, which has hit economies hard worldwide.
In addition, Nigeria’s economic policies have not been conducive to investment, with high taxes and bureaucracy deterring many potential investors.
The NIPC needs to take urgent action to turn this trend around and attract more investment into Nigeria.
This is essential for the country’s economic growth and development. Thank you for sharing this article.