Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission report reveals that 92% of FDI announcements did not materialise

NIGERIA may have lost about $188.29bn worth of foreign direct investment (FDI) over the last five years meaning that about 92% of opportunities that were available to the country between 2017 and 2020 did not materialise.

According to a recent report by the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) on investment announcements versus FDI inflows into Nigeria between 2017 and 2020, revealed that the actual inflows within the period was about 7.65% of the total investment announcements captured by the commission. This indicates that  most  investment announcements and expression of interests to invest did not materialise or translate to actual investment inflow.

In addition, the report shows that total investment announcements captured by NIPC during the period amounted to $203.89bn, whereas actual FDI inflow was $15.6bn, representing just 7.65%. Statistics obtained from NIPC stated that in 2017, only $3.5bn of actual FDI inflow was recorded  out  of a total investment announcement of $66.35bn.

Similarly, in 2018 only $6.4bn worth of FDI materialised out of $90.89bn announced. In 2019, $3.3bn was realised out of $29.91bn announced and in 2020 only $2.4bn was realised out of the $16.74bn investment announcements that were made.

NIPC noted, however, that its report is based only on investment announcements captured, which may not contain exhaustive information during the period. Furthermore, the NIPC added that it did not independently verify the authenticity of the announcements.