Lagos state remains most preferred destination of foreign investors as Nigeria attracted a sum of $1.54 billion as capital inflows in the second quarter of 2022, an increase of 75.34% compared to $875.62 million recorded in the corresponding period of 2021.
Of the total amount, Lagos claimed $1.054 billion, representing 68.66%, followed by investment into Abuja (FCT), valued at $453.95 million equivalent to29.57%.
According to the recently released capital importation report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), this amount is however 2.4% lower than the $1.57 billion received in the first quarter of 2022.
The breakdown of the report showed that the largest amount was received through portfolio investment at $757.32 million, which accounted for 49.33% of the total inflows, followed by other investments with $630.87 million, representing 41.09%, while foreign direct investment accounted for 9.58% ($147.16 million).
Highlights of the Report
Foreign direct investment (FDI) into Nigeria increased by 82.3% year-on-year from $77.97 million recorded in Q2 2021 to $147.16 million in the review quarter. However, it declined marginally by 8.26% from the previous quarter ($154.97 million).
In the same manner, foreign portfolio investments (FPI) recorded a 37.4% year-on-year increase to $757.32 million in Q2 2022 but declined by 20.9% on a quarter-on-quarter basis from $957.58 million recorded in the preceding quarter.
Other investments, which include trade credits, loans, currency deposits, and other claims stood at $630.87 million in the review period, a 156.2% year-on-year increase from $246.3 million recorded in the corresponding period of 2021,
Foreign inflows into Nigeria have remained low post-covid, attracting a total of $6.7 billion in foreign capital in 2021, as against $9.66 billion and $23.99 billion recorded in 2020 and 2019 respectively. Cumulatively, a total of $3.11 billion has been recorded as imported capital in the first half of the year.
Disaggregated by Sectors, capital importation into banking had the highest inflow of $646.36 million amounting to 42.10% of total capital imported in the second quarter of 2022.
This was followed by capital imported into the production sector, valued at $233.99 million (15.24%), and the financing sector with $197.31 million (12.85%).
Capital Importation by Country of Origin reveals that the United Kingdom ranked top as the source of capital imported into Nigeria in the second quarter of 2022 with a value of $781.05 million, accounting for 50.87%. This was followed by Singapore and the Republic of South Africa valued at $138.58 million (9.03%) and $122.26 million (7.96%) respectively.
In terms of destination of investments, Lagos state remained the top destination in Q2 2022 with $1.05 billion, accounting for 68.66% of total capital investment into Nigeria.
Abuja followed with $453.95 million in investments, accounting for 29.57% of the total value. Notably, apart from Anambra, Ekiti, and Kogi States, all other states recorded no inflows in the period under review.
According to the NBS, Citibank Nigeria Limited ranked highest in Q2 2022 with $450.94 million (29.37%), in terms of categorization by banks. This was followed by Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria Limited with $323.24 million (21.05%) and Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc with $163.92 (10.68%).
