These 17 States Did Not Attract Foreign Investment in Q1 2019

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

Earlier this week, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released the capital importation data for Nigeria in the first quarter of 2019.

In the period under consideration, the stats office said a total of $8.5 billion was brought into the country through various investment platforms; majorly grouped into foreign direct investment (FDI), foreign portfolio investment (FPI) and other investments.

In the figures released by the NBS, it was said that the largest amount of capital importation by type was received through FPIs, which accounted for 84.21 percent or $7.146 billion of total capital importation, followed by other investment, which accounted for 12.91 percent or $1.096 billion of total capital, and then FDIs, which accounted for 2.86 percent $243.36 million of total capital imported in 2019.

An analysis by destination of investment indicated that Lagos State was the preferred place for international investors in Nigeria in Q1 2019 with $4,773 billion, accounting for 56.25 percent of the total capital inflow in Q1 2019. It was followed by Abuja, with $3.586 billion and Rivers State, with $41.403 million.

However, Business Post observed that from the data released by the NBS, a total of 17 states did not contribute anything to the $8.5 billion investment attracted into the country in the first three months of this year. Only 19 states, excluding FCT Abuja, contributed to the figures.

These 17 states without any impact in the forex into the country are Abia, Bayelsa, Ebonyi, Enugu, Edo, Ekiti, Gombe, Jigawa, Kebbi, Kogi, Nasarawa, Osun, Plateau, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe and Zamfara.