Nigeria’s foreign direct investment (FDI) rose by 41 percent in Q4 of 2014 as against the preceding quarter (Q3), the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has said.
FDI increased from a value of $544.50 million in quarter three of 2014, to $768.86 million in quarter four.
According to the report, despite the increase, Nigeria’s total capital imported to the country for the period declined. A sharp decline of $2,042.84 million – 31.22 per cent – was recorded from the value of $6,542.58 million that was recorded in the preceding quarter.
Also, the closing quarter of the year 2014 was still greater than the $3,904.55 million of capital imported in the opening quarter, by $595.18 million or 15.24 percent.
The bureau attributed the decline in the capital imported in quarter four to low levels of investors’ confidence owing to the build-up to the 2015 elections.
“Capital Importation is divided into three main investment types: Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), Portfolio Investment and Other Investments, each comprising various subsectors,” the report said.
According to the Wall street journal (WSJ) frontiers and frontier strategy group (FSG) frontier market sentiment index, Nigeria maintained its top spot as the frontier-market economy that is attracting the most attention from American and European multinationals for potential future investments.
The report stated that the greatest value of capital imported to Nigeria continues to be the United Kingdom, with $1.94bn imported in the fourth quarter of 2014, representing 43.21 per cent of the total.
It said marginal declines were also observed in the United States, which is Nigeria’s second largest source of capital, declining by $54.62m or 4.84 per cent to $1.07bn in quarter four.
For portfolio investment, the report also stated that this made up the largest portion of the total capital imported.
It said at a fourth quarter value of $2.0bn, portfolio investment declined by $3.12bn or 60.94 per cent from its quarter three value of $7.12bn.