Report Says “Nigeria Attracted N7.6bn Greenfield Capital Investment In 2018”
Nigeria attracted N7.6bn cross-border greenfield capital investment in 2018, according to the latest report by fDi Market Intelligence, a research unit of Financial Times.
A greenfield investment is a type of foreign direct investment where a parent company creates a subsidiary in a different country, building its operations from the ground up.
In terms of the number of projects, the report said foreign companies executed 52 FDI projects in Nigeria in 2018.
This put Nigeria among the top 10 destinations for FDI projects in the Middle East and Africa.
“The number of FDI projects into Nigeria increased by 49 per cent, with inward capital investment increasing by 58 per cent,” the report stated.
Commenting on the report, the Head of Content, fDi Intelligence, Courtney Fingar, said, “What it reveals is a recovery in greenfield FDI, after its 2017 decline. In 2018, greenfield FDI strengthened with the number of FDI projects increasing by seven per cent while capital investment increased by 42 per cent alongside a 25 per cent increase in job creation via FDI.”
In Africa, the investment market report stated that FDI projects experienced an increase of 12 per cent to 667 in 2018 but a nine per cent decline in capital investment to $74.2bn.
“FDI into the Middle East and Africa by project numbers increased seven per cent in 2018 to 1253, with capital investment increasing by 14 per cent. FDI into the Middle East remained stable by the number of projects with a two per cent increase to 586, while capital investment increased 64 per cent to $61.1bn,” it added.
In the Middle East and Africa region, the report said the United Arab Emirates remained the top location for FDI attracting 24 per cent of FDI projects into the region.
According to the findings, South Africa ranked second for FDI into the Middle East and Africa by the number of projects, with a three per cent increase to 103 and 33 per cent increase in capital expenditure.
“Kenya and Ethiopia both witnessed an increase in the number of FDI projects in 2018, by 14 per cent and 21 per cent, respectively. Morocco was the only location in the top 10 to witness a decrease in FDI projects into the country, with a decline of 21 per cent. However, capital investment increased by 20 per cent,” the study added.
According to fDi insights, Saudi Arabia experienced an increase in capital investment into the country of 124 per cent as well as a 27 per cent increase in overall FDI projects.
Globally, the report said greenfield FDI strengthened with the number of FDI projects increasing seven per cent to 14,845 in 2018 while capital investment increased 42 per cent to $917.3bn alongside a 25 per cent increase in job creation to 2.3 million.
It noted that China replaced the United States as the highest ranked country for FDI by capital investment, with $107.2bn recorded, boosted by major announcements from Foxconn and BASF totalling $19bn.
However, the US was the highest ranked country for FDI by the number of projects, recording 1,581 announcements compared with China’s 796 projects.
“Western Europe was the leading destination region for FDI in 2018 by the number of projects with 4,385 announcements. However, Asia-Pacific received the largest level of capital investment in 2018 with $377.7bn-worth of FDI recorded. Western Europe was the leading source region for FDI in 2018, with 6524 FDI projects recorded. This accounted for 44 per cent of all FDI globally and $305.9bn in capital investment,” the report said.
