Nigeria suffers a $331m drop in foreign direct investment during the fourth quarter of 2021

FOREIGN direct investment (FDI) into Nigeria fell by a whopping $331.2m to $698.78m in 2021 compared with the sum of $1.03bn recorded in 2020 according to figures just released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS)..

It is not yet clear why there was such a huge drop but the NBS report, titled Nigerian Capital Importation Quarter Four, showed that equities investment of the FDI totalled $692.58m, while other capital was put at $6.2m. Nigeria recorded sums of $154.6m, $77.97m, $107.81m and $ $358.23m as FDI during the first, second, third and fourth quarters of 2021, respectively.

Also, the report revealed that portfolio investment in the country also fell by $1.75m to $3.39bn in 2021 from $5.14bn recorded in 2020. It also showed that other investments fell by $890m from $3.51tn in 2020 to $2.62tn in 2021.

In addition, the NBS report said the total value of capital importation into Nigeria in the fourth quarter of 2021 stood at $2.19bn from $1.73bn in the preceding quarter, indicating an increase of 26.35%. When compared to the corresponding quarter of 2020, capital importation increased by 109.28% from $1.05bn.

Meanwhile, the largest amount of capital importation by type was received through other investment, which accounted for 54.24% ($1.19bn). This was followed by portfolio investment with 29.39% ($642.87m) and the FDI amounted to 16.38% ($358.23m) of the total capital imported in the fourth quarter of 2021.

Disaggregated by sectors, capital importation into tanning had the highest inflow of $645.59m amounting to 29.51% of the total capital imported in the fourth quarter of 2021. This was followed by capital imported into the production sector, valued at $360.06m (16.46%) and the electrical sector with $325.55m (14.88%).

Capital importation by country of origin reveals that Mauritius ranked top as source of capital imported into Nigeria in the fourth quarter of 2021 with a value of $611.45m, accounting for 27.95%. This was followed by the US and the Republic of South Africa with FDI valued at $321.03m (14.67%) and $285.83m (13.07%), respectively.

By destination of investment, Lagos State remained the top destination in the fourth quarter of  2021 with $1.98bn,  accounting for 90.66% of the total capital investment in Nigeria. This was followed by investment into Abuja valued at $170.55m (7.8%).

Categorisation of total capital investment by banks showed that Eco Bank ranked highest in the fourth quarter of 2021 with $708.58m (32.39%). This was followed by Stanbic IBTC Bank with $453.82m (20.74%) and Union Bank of Nigeria with $284.60m (13.01%).