The first half of the year 2020 may have witnessed a dip in investments when compared to the same period in the past year, 2019, no thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) first half 2020 reports show that US$5.06 billion of investment announcements were tracked for H1 2020, 67% less than the value in H1 2019 (US$15.15 billion).
NIPC reports indicate that the decline is consistent with the expected downward pressure on investment flows, given the negative global economic impact of COVID-19.
The Commission continues to send out its NIPC Intelligence Newsletter 6 days a week and tracked a total of 34 projects across 16 states, FCT and the Niger Delta Region from January to June 2020.
The top destinations during the period were: Kaduna State (US$2.61 billion), Lagos State (US$221 million), Nasarawa State (US$56 million), Ekiti State (US$50 million) and Cross River (US$15 million).
Similarly, the top 5 sectors were transportation and storage (40%), information and communication (32%), mining and quarrying (22%) finance and insurance (68%), agriculture (20%), agriculture (6%) and finance and insurance (3%).
United States of America was the most active source of investments during the period with 43% of the announcements. The other major sources were South Africa (31%), domestic investors (16%), and United Kingdom (8%).
NIPC’s Intelligence Newsletter culls Nigerian investment-related news from various sources. The Report is based only on investment announcements cited in NIPC’s Newsletters from January to June 2020 and it may not contain exhaustive information on all investment announcements in Nigeria during the period.
Nevertheless, the Report gives a sense of investors’ interest in the Nigerian economy; NIPC did not independently verify the authenticity of the investment announcements but is working on tracking the announcements to facilitate their progress to actual investments.
