Foreign investments inflow into Nigeria’s capital imports increased to $2.604.50 million in the second quarter of 2024, from $1.030.21 recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2023, representing a 152.81 per cent increase.
This is contained in the latest Capital Importation Data as released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Tuesday.
However, this represents a 22.85% decrease compared to the $3.376.01 achieved in Q1 2024.
Portfolio investments led the statistics with US$1,404.70 million, 53.93 percent, while other investments accounted for US$1,169.97 million, 44.92%.
The least was foreign direct investment, amounting to US$29.83 million, 1.15 percent of the total capital imports in Q2 2024.
The banking sector, by sectoral analysis, dominated in terms of having the highest inflow of US$1, 123.95 m (43.15%) of the total capital imported in Q2 2024, followed by the production/manufacturing sector with US$624.71 m (23.99%) and trading with US$569.22 m (21.86%).
During this period, the largest share of capital imports was from the United Kingdom, with the amount of US$1,120.15 million or 43.01 percent of the country’s total capital importation. It was followed by the Netherlands with US$577.82 million, or 22.19 percent, and the Republic of South Africa with US$255.98 million, or 9.83 percent.
While Lagos State remained the top destination state with US$1,367.84 million, accounting for 52.52 percent of the total capital imported; Abuja (FCT) followed with US$1,236.64 million or 47.48 percent, with Ekiti State ranking third at $0.0003 million.
While Citibank Nigeria Limited accounted for the most capital importation into Nigeria in Q2 2024 with US$818.46 million, representing 31.43% of the total, it was followed by Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria Limited with US$654.79 million, representing 25.14%, and Rand Merchant Bank Plc, with US$488.59 million, which accounted for 18.76%.
This is just after the country’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu said, in an address to mark Nigeria’s 64th Independence Day, that the country would attract $30 billion in foreign direct investment by 2023.
