Foreign investments in Nigeria’s manufacturing industry went up by $644 million in 2023 to $1.5 billion from $948 million in the prior year, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The NBS in its capital importation report stated that manufacturing ranked first as the sector with the most investments.
The banking and finance sectors (treated separately) came a distant second and third as the sectors that made up the top three investment magnates.
Investments in manufacturing in 2023 ($1.5 billion) constituted 39 per cent of the total capital importation during the year ($3.8 billion)
Foreign investments to Nigeria shrank by $1.5 billion to $3.8 billion against $5.4 billion recorded in 2022.
By type, other investments attracted $ 2.37 billion to the total capital importation, followed by portfolio investment at $1.1 billion and foreign direct investment bought in $377.3 million.
Lagos State was the top destination in 2023 with $2.5 billion, followed by Abuja with $1.1 billion. Abia and Rivers States recorded $150 million and $6 million, respectively.
Other states that attracted investments in 2023 were Ogun, Ekiti, Abia, Akwa Ibom, Anambra and Adamawa.
29 states failed to attract any investments during the period.
In recent years, foreign investments in Nigeria have been on a consistent decline.
According to NBS, foreign investment inflow into Africa’s largest economy declined by $18.6 billion in four years (2019-2022).
During the four years, eight states failed to attract any form of foreign investment.
The affected states were Taraba, Yobe, Zamfara, Bayelsa, Ebonyi, Gombe, Jigawa and Kebbi.
According to the data, Nigeria attracted $23.9 billion as foreign investments in 2019.
By 2020, the figure declined to $9.6 billion, dipping further to $6.7 billion the following year, before decreasing to $5.3 billion in 2022. This implies a $18.6 billion decline over the four-year.
In total, the most populous Black Country in the world raked in about $46 billion in the four years.
Lagos State led with the highest foreign investments ($35.4 billion), while Federal Capital Territory followed with $10 billion foreign inflow.
