By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Statistician–General of the Federation, Mr Yemi Kale, has revealed that a total of $1 billion was attracted as investment into the Nigerian economy in January and February 2017.
Mr Kale noted that this was more than what was achieved in the corresponding period of 2016.
According to him, “If you look at foreign direct investments and capital importation, they dropped as low as $700 million from about $20 billion at the peak in 2015; but now, you have seen they are gradually going back up.
“For the first two months of the first quarter, it was already over $1 billion and so the numbers suggest that things are improving.”
He said this improvement came despite the economic predicaments the country was battling with.
Mr Kale said this goes to show Nigeria still remains one of the most attractive countries to do businesses in the world.
In the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan released recently, the Federal Government hopes to ensure investments worth N14.67 trillion enter the economy before the end of the 2017 fiscal year.
Mr Kale said this could be achieved especially when the economy was showing signs of recovery in the first quarter.
According to him, with the inflation rate reducing gradually and companies recording improvements in their profitability, the country would soon be out of recession.
“If you look at the inflation rate for the last few months, you can see that prices are still rising but they are rising at a slower rate than they did previously.
“If you look at the trend, it was negative for almost the whole of 2016, but in the last quarter of 2016 it turned positive and we think it is going to turn positive again in the first quarter of 2017.
“If you also look at companies’ financial results, particularly manufacturing companies quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), you can see that they are returning to profitability after they ran losses the previous year.
“So, they are several indicators that you can look at that show that things are beginning to improve even if they have not yet got to the point where we are comfortable that things are fully better,” he said.
