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| Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari |
ABUJA, Nov 4 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Nigerian companies attracted investments worth $19.1 billion from local and foreign investors in the first nine months of 2021, surging by 113% from $8.98 billion recorded in the corresponding period of 2020.
This is according to the information contained in the report of investment announcements, released by the Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC). According to the report, the investments recorded in the review period were comprised of 62 projects across 16 states in the federation.
Meanwhile, the increase recorded in the review period is only significant due to a favourable base period of 2020, which was affected by the covid-19 pandemic.
Notably, when compared to years before the pandemic, $19.1 billion is lower in contrast to $24.44 billion recorded in 2019, $73.07 billion in 2018, and $41.71 billion in 2017. It is worth noting that they are all 9-month periods (January to September) of their respective years.
A further breakdown of the report shows that $8.41 billion was recorded in Q1 2021, $1.69 billion in Q2, while $8.99 billion was recorded in the third quarter of the year.
The manufacturing sector attracted the highest investments of $3.76 billion in the review period, accounting for 42% of the inflows recorded in the quarter.
The electricity sector received investments valued at $2.24 billion, representing 25% of the total funds, while Information and Communications sector accounts for 23%, with $2.06 billion.
Most of the funds were directed to the economic hub of the nation, Lagos State which received a sum of $7.29 billion in form of investments in Q3 2021, accounting for 82% of the total.
Rivers State followed with $300 million, which is 3% of the total, while Oyo State received $230 million in the review quarter.
In terms of the source of the funds, 47% of the total investments to a tune of $4.23 billion was sourced locally, 22% ($2 billion) was from South Korea, 16% ($1.46 billion) from South Africa, while $0.52 billion was sourced from Spain.
Nigeria needs significant investments into the economy to achieve its desired growth, especially foreign and local direct investments. Corporate Nigeria and other startups have intensified efforts to attract investment in 2021 both from local and foreign investors.
So far in 2021, a total of $19.1 billion investment has been recorded in Nigeria, higher than $16.74 billion recorded in the whole of 2020.
However, it is still far below the amount recorded before the covid-19 pandemic. While the recent increase shows a level of positivity, Nigeria needs to improve on her ability to attract investments into the economy. — NNN-AGENCIES