In the aftermath of the scourge of the coronavirus pandemic, investment pledges by domestic and foreign investors to projects in Nigeria declined by 67 percent in the first half of 2020, the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) has disclosed.
As at the end of H1 of 2020, the proposed investment stood at $5.06 billion {N1.92tr} from $15.15 billion {N5.7tr}, this signals an N3.8tr decline the NIPC disclosed in the newly released report.
Read also: COVID 19 Crisis: Top Nigerian, S/African Companies To Cut Down Staff By 52%, Says PwC Report
The $5.06 investment pledge was pledged to 34 projects across 16 States, the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, and the Niger-Delta Region while the $15.15 in 2019 was pledged to 43 projects across 10 States and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT.
According to the investment tracking agency, the decline in Nigeria’s investment announcement is consistent with the expected downward pressure on investment flows, given the negative global economic impact of COVID-19.
Analysis of the report by NIPC showed that domestic investor’s pledge amongst 10 other countries accounted for 16 percent of the value. This is compared to the 43 percent by investors from the US and 31 percent from South Africa and 8 percent from the United Kingdom.
Read also: SERAP Asks FG To Publish Details On Covid-19 Spendings, Home Feeding Programme
According to the report, the fund was to be deployed into 34 projects across 16 states including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). This is compared to the 43 projects announced across 12 states in the first six months of 2019.
Breakdown of the H1 2020 report shows that Kaduna State was the biggest beneficiary, with 51 percent of total value at $ 2.61 billion; Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital got 4 percent of the proposals worth $221million while Nasarawa State ($56 million), and Ekiti State ($50 million) got 1 percent each.
Distribution of the recipient sectors of the investments shows that transportation & storage and information & communication gained more investor’s interest accounting for 39 percent of the total value and 32 percent respectively. Mining & quarrying, and agriculture also made the list of top five investment destinations with 20 percent, and 5 percent respectively.
While the NIPC report that was tracked from January to June 2020 may not contain exhaustive information on all investment announcements in Nigeria during the period, the agency explained that its data “gives a sense of investors’ interest in the Nigerian economy.”
Further breakdown of the H1 report by NIPC revealed there were no investment pledges in February, the month Nigeria joined the rest of the world to record its first COVID-19 case.
Meanwhile, the highest investment pledges were reported in January with four announcements as against three in June and one each in March and May.
H1-2020-Investment-Announcements-20200718
