Nigeria’s Foreign Capital Importation Records Huge Decline In 4 Years, Drops To $9.68bn

The total value of capital importation into Nigeria has dropped from $23.9 billion recorded in 2019 to $9.68 billion in 2020.

According to the data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Friday, this is a decline of 59.65 percent between 2019 and 2020.

Foreign capital flow into the country stood at $16.81bn in 2018, $12.23bn in 2017, and $5.12bn in 2016, the NBS data showed.

According to the statistics agency in its full-year capital importation report, Nigeria recorded $1.06 billion in the fourth quarter of last year, a 26.81 percent drop quarter on quarter.

The report shows that the largest amount of capital importation was received through other investments which recorded $783.26 million, followed by foreign direct investment and portfolio investment.

The United Kingdom topped the list of top sources of investment, while Lagos State emerged top destination of capital investment in the review quarter.

“By Destination of investment, Lagos State emerged as the top destination of capital investment in Nigeria in Q4 2020 with $829.64m. This accounted for 77.56% of the total capital inflow in Q4 2020.

“By bank, Citibank Nigeria Limited emerged at the top of capital investment in Nigeria in Q4 2020 with $216.17m. This accounted for 20.21 percent of the total capital inflow in Q4 2020,” NBS said.