By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has revealed that Nigeria attracted $1.5 billion as capital inflows in the second quarter of 2022.
In its Nigerian Capital Importation Q2 2022 report, the agency said the inflows eased by 2.40 per cent on a quarter-on-quarter basis when compared with the $1.6 billion achieved in the first quarter of this year but improved by 75.34 per cent on a year-on-year basis when compared with the $875.6 million reported in the same period of last year.
The NBS stated that the largest amount of capital importation was received through Portfolio Investment, which accounted for 49.33 per cent at $757.3 million, followed by Other Investment with 41.09 per cent at $630.9 million and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) with 9.58 per cent at $147.2 million.
In terms of destination, Lagos State remained on top with $1.1 billion (68.66 per cent), trailed by Abuja at $454.0 million (29.57 per cent and Anambra State at $24.3 million.
The report further disclosed that the banking sector had the highest capital inflows in the country in the period under review at $646.4 million, followed by the production sector at $234.0 million, and the financing sector at $197.3 million.
It was observed by Business Post that Citibank Nigeria was the channel through which most of the FX inflows came into Nigeria as it recorded $450.9 million (29.37 per cent), closely followed by Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria with $323.2 million (21.05 per cent), and Stanbic IBTC Bank with $163.9 million (10.68 per cent).
As for the country of origin, most of the forex inflows were from the United Kingdom at $781.05 million (50.87 per cent), $138.6 million came from Singapore, and $122.3 million came from South Africa.
Adedapo Adesanya 
Modupe Gbadeyanka