Investments into Nigeria Drop 67% in 2019—NIPC

By Adedapo Adesanya 

Investments into Nigeria dropped by 67 percent to $29 billion in 2019, against $90 billion that was recorded in 2018, a report released by the Nigerian Investment Promotion Council (NIPC) has revealed.

The investment council in its new report explained that 2019, being an election year, was filled with uncertainties, which contributed to investors’ perception of the economy.

NIPC disclosed that the country attracted investments in 76 projects across 17 states, including the federal capital territory (FCT) last year, adding that the country also saw some investments offshore.

The agency further indicated that Lagos State had the highest number of projects with 33 projects (43 percent) followed at a distance by Ogun State with five (7 percent) and Kaduna with three projects (4 percent).

In terms of value, $19.8 billion (66 percent) worth of investments were announced to be located offshore Nigeria. In selected states, Lagos got brought in a total of $2.6 billion (9 percent), and $1 billion (4 percent) of investments were recorded in Ondo.

Further analysis of the announcements by sector showed that the investors put their money mostly in the mining and quarry sector, bringing in $21.5 billion (72 percent), followed far behind by the manufacturing sector with $3.2 billion (11 percent).

Other selected sectors in the report include: electricity, gas, and water supply recorded $2.3 billion (8 percent) while transportation and storage saw $2 billion (7 percent ) in investments last year.

The year also saw more investments carried out by local investors than investors from the Netherlands, Canada, Morocco also contributing.

“Domestic investors were the most active, announcing 39 projects with a total worth of $10.8 billion (36 percent), followed by Netherlands, 1 project worth $10 billion (33 percent), Canada, 3 projects worth $2.4 billion (8 percent), Morocco, 2 projects worth US2.1 billion (7 percent), Malaysia, 2 projects worth $1 billion and Singapore announced 1 project worth US$1 billion (3 percent) each,” the NIPC Report further stated.