Capital Importation into Nigeria Drops 31.12% in Q3 2018

By Dipo Olowookere

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Tuesday released the Nigerian Capital Importation report from the third quarter of 2018.

In the data released by the NBS, the capital importation into Nigeria went down by 31.12 percent when compared with the figures in the same period of 2017.

According to the stats office, the total value of capital importation into Nigeria stood at $2,855.21 million in the third quarter of 2018, a decrease of 48.21 percent compared with Q2 2018.

It was further disclosed that the largest amount of capital importation by type was received through portfolio investment, accounting for 60.5 percent ($1,723.05 million) of total capital importation, followed by Other Investment, which accounted for 21.07 percent ($601.53 million) of total capital, and then Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), which accounted for 18.58 percent ($530.63 million) of total capital imported in the third quarter.

Also, by sector, capital importation as shares, which is closely related to equity investment (FDI and Portfolio

Investment) dominated the third quarter of 2018 reaching $1,667.76 million of the total capital importation in the quarter. During the period under review, the United States emerged as the top source of capital investment in Nigeria in the third quarter of 2018 with $911.33 million. This accounted for 31.91 percent of the total capital inflow in Q3 2018.