Foreign and local investments in Nigerian companies rose to $19.1 billion in the first three quarters of 2021 from $8.98 billion recorded in the corresponding period of 2020.
This, according to the information contained in the report of investment announcements, released by the Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC). represents an increase of 113%.
The report further stated that the investments recorded in the review period comprised 62 projects across 16 states in the federation.
Meanwhile, the increase recorded in the review period is only significant due to a favourable base period of 2020, which was affected by the covid-19 pandemic.
Notably, when compared to years before the pandemic, $19.1 billion is lower in contrast to $24.44 billion recorded in 2019, $73.07 billion in 2018, and $41.71 billion in 2017. It is worth noting that they are all 9-month periods (January to September) of their respective years.
A further breakdown of the report shows that $8.41 billion was recorded in Q1 2021, $1.69 billion in Q2, while $8.99 billion was recorded in the third quarter of the year.
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The manufacturing sector attracted the highest investments of $3.76 billion in the review period, accounting for 42% of the inflows recorded in the quarter.
The electricity sector received investments valued at $2.24 billion, representing 25% of the total funds, while the Information and Communications sector accounts for 23%, with $2.06 billion.
Most of the funds were directed to the economic hub of the nation, Lagos State which received a sum of $7.29 billion in form of investments in Q3 2021, accounting for 82% of the total.
Rivers State followed with $300 million, which is 3% of the total, while Oyo State received $230 million in the review quarter.
In terms of the source of the funds, 47% of the total investments to a tune of $4.23 billion was sourced locally, 22% ($2 billion) was from South Korea, 16% ($1.46 billion) from South Africa, while $0.52 billion was sourced from Spain.
In Q3 2021, Nigeria recorded the highest quarterly investments since Q3 2019, surging by 129% compared to $3.92 billion recorded in the corresponding period of 2020. However, a cursory look at the trend shows a general downturn in the number of investments received by Nigeria both from local and foreign investors.