Full List of Nigerian States Without Foreign Investment in 2023 as Lagos Leads Top States With FDI
by by Pascal Oparada · Legit.ng News · Join- About 27 Nigerian states failed to attract foreign investment in 2023 as capital imports into Nigeria drops
- Lagos witnessed the highest amount in foreign investment with $1.67 billion in 2023
- Abia state attracted about $150 million in foreign investment in the last three months of 2023
Pascal Oparada has over a decade of experience covering Tech, Energy, Stocks, Investments, and Economy.
Foreign investors ignored 27 Nigerian states as the value of capital imports into Nigeria dropped by 34% to $2.82 billion in the first nine months of 2023 from $4.27 billion in the same period last year.
Nigeria's statistics agency, the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS), revealed this in its latest capital import report for Q3 of 2023, released on Friday, December 29, 2023.
Nigeria experiences a drop in capital imports
Capital import is the investment from abroad in trade and manufacturing in a country.
Nigeria's capital imports for the first nine months of 2023 amounted to $2.82 billion, with $1.13 billion imported in the first quarter of 2023 and 654.65 million in the third quarter of 2023.
The number of states without foreign direct investment (FDI) declined from 28 in the first half of the year to 27 in the first nine months after Abia recorded $150.09 million in Q3.
Abia is the only state to witness a turnaround in foreign direct investment in three months.
Lagos leads Nigerian states with the highest FDI
During the period under review, Lagos led other states, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), with the highest amount of foreign investments.
The state attracted about $1.79 billion in FDI, representing 64% of the total capital imports into Nigeria.
TheCable reported that the state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu told investors that the state is the right place to invest.
The governor said the state was ready for foreign investment in fintech, Edutech, heath-tech, business processing outsourcing (BPO), and physical infrastructure.
Nigerian states with FDI in 2023
The NBS report said FCT emerged as Nigeria's second most preferred investment destination with $799.21 million, 28% of the total capital imported into Nigeria in the first nine months of this year.
Other states with FDI include Abia at $150.09 million, Akwa Ibom at $39.13 million, Ogun at $27.09 million, and Adamawa at $4.5 million.
Anambra had $4 million, Niger $1.50 million, $200,000 and Ekiti with $38,250
Top states without foreign investments in 2023
- Bauchi
- Bayelsa
- Benue
- Borno
- Cross River
- Delta
- Ebonyi
- Edo
- Enugu
- Gombe
- Imo
- Jigawa
- Kaduna
- Kano
- Katsina
- Kebbi
- Kogi
- Kwara
- Nasarawa
- Osun
- Oyo
- Plateau
- Rivers
- Sokoto
- Taraba
- Yobe
- Zamfara
Analysts list the top reasons for the decline in capital imports
Analysts said investors ignored Nigeria due to several issues ranging from insecurity, weak currency, high inflation, and a challenging business environment.
Business Editor at the Nigerian Xpress newspaper, Emeka Okoroanyanwu, said that investors take the issues of security and inflation very seriously.
"Inflation is a top issue for investors, followed by how strong or weak your currency is. Investors want to avoid entering a country battling insecurity or having one of the world's highest inflation rates.
"With inflation at 28.20%, investors will be very cautious to come and not talk about infrastructure like power. Others are multiple taxation. I believe the government is addressing the issues of multiple taxation," he said.
Insecurity: Foreign investors avoid 31 states as investments into Nigeria drop by over N600bn in Q1
Legit.ng reported that the total value of foreign investment or capital importation into Nigeria dropped on a quarter-on-quarter basis by 28.1 percent to $1.6 billion in the first quarter of (Q1) 2022.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) disclosed this in its capital importation report, released on Thursday.
When the data is analyzed on a year-on-year basis, capital importation dropped by 17.5 percent from $1.9 billion recorded in Q1 2021.