By Adedapo Adesanya
Foreign and local investment announcements in Nigeria grew by 130 per cent to $8.9 billion in the third quarter of the year, according to the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC).
The commission stated in a report in Abuja that it observed that the value of investments attracted by the nation between July and September 2021 was higher than the $3.95 billion achieved in the corresponding period of 2020.
The NIPC Director of Strategic Services, Mr Abubakar Yerima, said, “a total of 33 projects were tracked across 8 states during the period. The month of August was the most active during the quarter, accounting for 64 per cent of the total announcements.
“The top 10 announcements accounted for 96 per cent of the volume tracked. Compared to Q3 2020, there is a marked improvement in the level of confidence in the investing community post-COVID-19.
“In the period covered by the report, Lagos State received the largest share of the announcements with 20 projects accounting for 81 per cent ($7.29 billion) of the total in manufacturing, information and communications, finance and insurance, human health and social services, and electricity.
“Rivers State recorded $300 million worth of announcements in manufacturing and transportation, and Oyo State had $231 million announced in electricity and trade (e-commerce). The 4 States accounted for 87 per cent of the total investments.
“The top sectors were manufacturing (42 per cent), electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply (25 per cent), information and communications (23 per cent) and transportation (7 per cent).
“Domestic investors were the most active during the period accounting for 47 per cent of the announcements, followed by announcements from South Korea (22 per cent), South Africa (16 per cent), and the Kingdom of Spain (6 per cent)”.
He explained that “NIPC’s Intelligence Newsletter publishes Nigerian investment-related news culled, from various sources.
“This report is based only on the news articles cited in NIPC’s Newsletters published from July to September 2021; it may not contain exhaustive information on all investment announcements in Nigeria during the period.
“Nevertheless, the report gives a sense of investors’ interest in the Nigerian economy. NIPC did not independently verify the authenticity of the investment announcements but is working on tracking the announcements as they progress to actual investments.”
