Lagos is foreign investors’ favourite destination in Nigeria
The National Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday released the capital importation report, stating that investment inflows into the country rose by 95.02 percent from $884.1m in the first quarter of this year to $1.79bn in the second quarter.
While on year on year, this was an increase of 43.6% from the $1.042.2 recorded in Q2 of 2016. The report also shows that the month of May recorded the highest of amount of capital importation ($616.5 million).
The NBS attributed the main driver of the quarterly growth in capital importation in the second quarter to 146.7 percent increase in Portfolio Investments. This, it added, was followed by Other Investments, which grew by 95.02 percent, and then Foreign Direct Investment, which increased by 29.8 percent over the previous quarter.
The report also revealed that Lagos State imported the highest capital into Nigeria in the second quarter.
Lagos is the commercial and financial capital of Nigeria, and home to Nigeria’s Stock Exchange where shares are traded; as such attracts influx of capital into the country.
In the second quarter of 2017 Lagos accounted for 97.07% ($1,739.79 million) of capital importation, which represents a slight increase in its share relative to the previous quarter, when it was 95.32%.
Akwa Ibom recorded the second highest level of capital importation, accounting for 1.92% ($34.08 million) of the total share and an increase of 85.6% over the amount it recorded in the previous quarter.
Abuja recorded the third highest amount, with a share of 0.93% ($16.64 million) of the total, followed by Oyo state with a share of 0.1% ($1.83 million).
