Nigeria attracts $8.41bn in Q1 2021

Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) in its investment report for 2021 has disclosed that $8.41 billion was tracked as investment announcements for the first quarter of 2021.

The figure represents about bout 75 per cent more than the value in the corresponding period (Q4) 2020 which was put at $4.81 billion.

The increase is attributed to the gradual return of investors’ confidence globally after the COVID-induced decline.

The Commission added that the release of the NIPC Intelligence Newsletter 6 days a week and tracked a total of 15 projects across 8 states in the period under review.

“Bayelsa state received the largest share of the announcements with US$3.6 billion in mining and quarrying. Delta State recorded $2.94 billion worth of announcements in seaport construction and power transmission, Akwa Ibom State had US$1.4 billion announced in mining and quarrying, and Lagos State with announcements totalling US$0.26 billion in finance, insurance, and manufacturing.

“The Report showed that the leading 4 destinations this quarter accounted for 97 per cent of the total investments announced as against 56 per cent in the corresponding period last year. The top sectors were manufacturing (60%), and construction (34%). Domestic investors were the most active during the period accounting for 35 per cent of the announcements. This was followed by announcements from Morocco (17%), the United Kingdom (3%) and the USA (1%),” NIPC explained.

NIPC however stated that “The Report is based only on the 340 news articles cited in NIPC’s Newsletters from January to March 2021; 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.”

It added that it did not independently verify the authenticity of the investment announcements but is working on tracking the announcements as they progress to actual investments.