Foreign Investment Inflow Falls by $18.6bn in Four Years

Foreign investment inflow into Africa’s largest economy declined by $18.6bn in four years (2019-2022), according to National Bureau of Statistics.

Also in the review period, eight states in the federation failed to attract any form of foreign investment

The affected states are Taraba, Yobe, Zamfara, Bayelsa, Ebonyi, Gombe, Jigawa and Kebbi.

Foreign investments refer to revenue inflow from external sources into an economy either as direct capital investments, equity, cash or goods.

According to data published NBS, Nigeria attracted $23.9bn as foreign investments in 2019.

By 2020, the figure declined to $9.6bn. It declined again in 2021 to $6.7bn and once more to $5.3bn in 2022. This implies a decline of $18.6bn during the four-year period.

However, the most populous black nation in Africa raked in about $46bn in the four years period.

Lagos State led with the highest foreign investments ($35.4bn), while Federal Capital Territory followed with foreign inflow of $10bn.

Further analysis of the data showed that the vast majority of the states that underperformed with regard to attracting foreign investments were states in the Northeast political zone.

In the North-East, the decade-long fundamentalist insurgency led by Boko Haram and its spawns have caused around 350,000 deaths, displaced over three million residents and destroyed public infrastructure in a region already blighted by poverty and poor socio-economic outcomes.