Africa’s biggest economy has attracted $8.9bn worth of investment pledges in Q3 2021 from both foreign and domestic investors, according to a report by the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) released on Tuesday.
According to the report, the investment tracked in Q3 of 2021 is 130 percent more than the value in the corresponding period in 2020 at $3.95 billion.
Abubakar Yerima, NIPC’s director of strategic services, said the total investments showed a marked improvement in the level of confidence in the investing community post-COVID-19.
The report shows that a total of 33 projects were tracked across eight States during the period, and the month of August was the most active during the quarter, accounting for 64 percent of the total announcements.
Lagos State was the top destination for investors with 20 projects; this accounts for 81 percent ($7.29 billion) of the total in manufacturing, information and communications, finance and insurance, human health and social services, and electricity.
Rivers State recorded US$300 million worth of announcements in manufacturing and transportation, and Oyo State had $231 million announced in electricity and trade (e-commerce).
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The states accounted for 87 percent of the total investments.
The top sectors were manufacturing (42 percent), electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply (25 percent), information and communications (23 percent) and transportation (7 percent).
Domestic investors were the most active during the period accounting for 47 percent of the announcements, followed by announcements from South Korea (22 percent), South Africa (16 percent), and the Kingdom of Spain (6 percent)
Yerima explained that NIPC’s Intelligence Newsletter publishes Nigerian investment-related news culled from various sources.
He informed that the report is based only on the news articles cited in NIPC’s Newsletters published from July to September 2021. “It may not contain exhaustive information on all investment announcements in Nigeria during the period.
“Nevertheless, the report gives a sense of investors’ interest in the Nigerian economy. NIPC did not independently verify the authenticity of the investment announcements but is working on tracking the announcements as they progress to actual investments,” he stated.
