Foreign investors shun Rivers, Enugu, Kaduna, 24 others

Foreign investors shun Rivers, Enugu, Kaduna, 24 others

Foreign investors shunned 27 states as the value of capital importation that flowed into the Nigeria’s economy fell by 20.5 per cent to $5.33bn in 2022 from $6.70bn in 2021.

The National Bureau of Statistics disclosed this in its latest Nigerian Capital Importation report for the four quarters of 2022.

According to the NBS data, the 27 states ignored by investors are Abia, Adamawa, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Benue, Borno, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Enugu, Gombe, Imo, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Kebbi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Ogun, Osun, Rivers, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe, and Zamfara.

In 2022, only ten states attracted foreign investments.

Lagos took the lead as it outshined others, and the federal capital territory (FCT), to top the list of states that attracted the most investments within the year.

Analysis by TheCable Index shows that the country’s commercial city attracted $3.61 billion in investment, representing 68 percent of the total capital inflow into the country for the period under review.

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This also shows an increase when compared to the $2.21 billion investment recorded in 2021.

The NBS said Abuja (FCT) emerged second top investment destination with $1.63billion — representing 31 percent of the total capital inflow in the country in 2022.

Other states that attracted foreign investments in 2022 are Akwa Ibom ($42.52 million), Anambra ($36.97 million), Oyo ($3.00 million), and Kogi ($2.00 million).

Katsina followed with $0.70 million, Ekiti ($0.51 million), Ondo ($0.20 million), and Plateau ($0.04 million).

Out of 52 countries that invested in Nigeria, the United Kingdom emerged as the top source of capital investment in 2022 with $2.76 billion; followed by South Africa ($428.73 million), Singapore ($420.97 million), and the United States ($286.92 million).

No foreign investment in eight states in four years

Out of the 27 states that were ignored by foreign investors, eight also failed to attract foreign investments in the last four years (2019 -2022).

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

A recent report by the Debt Management Office (DMO) and the NBS also shows that some of the states are accumulating domestic and foreign debt.

According to DMO, apart from Kebbi state, the others had an increase in domestic debt in the last seven years.

Yobe State had a domestic debt growth of +2,247 percent, followed by Taraba at +218 percent, Gombe at +161 percent and Zamfara at +142 percent.

Others are Ebonyi with +139 percent growth in domestic debt, followed by Jigawa at +98 percent and Bayelsa at +42 percent. Only Kebbi State (-4 percent) had a decrease in its domestic debt in the last seven years.

On the internally generated revenue (IGR) front, the data also showed that the above states were doing poorly in generating revenue for their respective states.

The 2021 data released by the NBS (which is the latest) showed that Yobe generated N8.5 billion, which is the lowest among the 26 states; followed by Taraba with N9.6 billion, and Kebbi at N9.9 billion.

Gombe generated N10.6 billion as IGR in 2021, followed by Ebonyi (N13.8 billion) and Bayelsa, an oil-producing state, generated N13.3 billion in 2021. Jigawa and Zamfara generated N16.5 billion and N18.9 billion, respectively.

Nigeria’s Ambassador to Mexico, Adejare Bello, said restoring security in the country was a prerequisite for productive investment.

Bello said Mexican investors were willing to “invest heavily in Nigeria’s economy but for the prevailing security situation in the country”.

“The embassy receives frequent enquiries from investors on possible areas of collaboration between both countries but all these efforts to attract foreign investments are being thwarted by the news of insecurity,” he said.

He added, “Some of the areas the foreign investors have been looking to invest include oil and gas, gold mining, agriculture as well as establishing a partnership with Dangote in the area of fertiliser procurement.”