Nigeria which is the largest economy in Africa was the fifth largest beneficiary of gross FDI inflows in 2014, having occupied the no three spot the previous year.
This is the headline finding of the UNCTAD’s World Investment Report 2014.
When the data is adjusted to reflect FDI outflows, which amounted to US$1.6bn in Nigeria’s case, it has the fourth position on a net basis (and South Africa the fifth).
The gross and net figures for Nigeria mirror those in the CBN’s quarterly Developments in the External Sector.
The weighting of FDI on a GDP basis remains poor in Nigeria, at 0.9 percent and 0.6 percent in gross and net terms respectively, according to FBN Capital.
The ratio was comfortably in double-digits in several of the East Asian success stories after the crash of 1997 and 1998.
According to FBN Capital domestic investment however is increasingly in Nigeria although the foreign variant probably still has the edge in terms of the introduction of technology and skills.
One of the most visible marks of FDI inflows in Nigeria is retail space. South Africa’s Shoprite takes a long-term view: it had seven operations at end-2013 and still has plans for a total of 700 in the country.
UNCTAD also publishes data on announced Greenfield FDI on a regional basis.
For Africa as a whole, there was a healthy increase from $55.1bn to $88.3bn in 2014.
“We highlight two details: that manufacturing accounted for $28.8bn of the Greenfield total, and that China was the third investor (after France and the US),” FBN Capital said.
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