- 13 States Attract N1.9tn Investments in Three Months
Thirteen states, including the Federal Capital Territory, attracted the sum of $5.3bn (N1.9tn) investments in the last quarter of 2017, investigation by our correspondent revealed on Friday.
The investments made in 22 different sectors of the economy from October to December 2017, it was gathered, were the fallout of the new initiatives of government particularly in the area of ease of doing business.
Based on the government’s official statistics, the FCT attracted the highest investment inflow with the sum of $2.68bn.
This is about 49 per cent of the entire investment inflow into the country during the three-month period.
Lagos State followed closely with $2.54bn investment, representing 47.2 per cent of the total investments into the country.
Akwa Ibom recorded an investment inflow of $124.84m; Ogun, $8.79m; Oyo, $7.03m; Delta, $5.69m; and Anambra, $3.77m.
Similarly, Enugu attracted a total investment of $644,890; Kogi, $500,000; Kano, $483,970; Bauchi, $425,000; Rivers, $384,817; and Kaduna, $89,975.
The sectors where the $5.3bn was invested are agriculture, $62.65m; banking, $543.37m; brewing, $2.3m; construction, $92.7m; consultancy, $2.06m; drilling, $0.3m; and electrical, $5.1m.
Others are financing, $122.68m; fishing, $99.4m; information Technology, $8.45m; marketing, $0.48m; oil and gas, $23.83m; production, $317.8m; and servicing, $216.45m.
The rest are hotels, $0.3m; telecoms, $191.01m; tanning, $0.52m; trading, $12.96m; transport, $0.55m; and shares, $3.68bn.
The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, said the huge amount, which the Federal Government was spending on infrastructure projects across the country was attracting fresh investments into the country.
She said this when a delegation of about 20 investors visited him at the headquarters of the ministry to discuss investment opportunities in Nigeria.
Adeosun told the delegation led by a former Minister of Finance, Dr. Shamsudeen Usman, that in 2017 alone, the sum of N1.2tn was released by the ministry for implementation of capital projects.
She added that the ministry was ready to make such huge release this year once the 2018 budget currently before the National Assembly was signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari.
She said part of the cardinal focus of the administration of President Buhari was to address the infrastructure deficit in the country.
This, she added, would be achieved through targeted spending at projects that would unlock the economic potential of the country.
She described the level of interest from foreign investors in the Nigerian economy as huge, adding that very soon, these interests would translate into massive investments that would create jobs and reduce the nation’s poverty level.
Adeosun said, “It’s a great time for investors to be in Nigeria. For us, it’s a better time now than last year because finally, we think that we are beginning to address through deliberate policies some of the most stubborn problems that have held back Nigeria’s growth.
“We’ve gone through very difficult adjustments but we are seeing that the macroeconomic fundamentals are much more positive and the outlook is that they will remain positive.
“The good news is that we have actually begun to take steps in terms of reducing our (oil) benchmark price by keeping it low, allowing us to rebuild some buffers.
“Our budget is predicated on lower oil price, and for me, we are focusing on revenue because we think that is the missing part of the Nigeria jig-saw.”
She said the economy had started seeing the impact of the expanded budget of the Federal Government with massive investment in power, road and rail.
“Our commitment in solving the infrastructure challenges in Nigeria is firm because we think that is what will unlock growth in agriculture and solid minerals and make us to move away from our over-reliance on oil,” the minister added.
Usman gave some of the sectors where these investors were interested in as power, manufacturing, agriculture, solid minerals, among others.
