Nigeria Secured $17.8bn Investment Pledge in Three Months – NIPC

• Nigeria Secured $17.8bn Investment Pledge in Three Months – NIPC

The Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission on Thursday said that in the first quarter of this year, states received a total investment commitment of $17.88bn.

The commitments, according to the Executive Secretary, NIPC, Yewande Sadiku, were secured on 32 projects across the states of the federation.

Sadiku, who spoke during a chat with journalists in Abuja, noted that the investments might not have fully materialised.

The NIPC boss gave some of the states that received investment commitments as Lagos, with $3bn; Ogun, $1.04bn; Niger, $754.7m; Gombe, $315m; and Kano, $174.6m

She stated that the oil and gas sector, with a total investment commitment of $12.9bn, got the highest interest from investors.

The $12.9bn is about 72 per cent of the total investment commitments during the period.

This is followed by the services sector, with $4.5bn, representing 25.3 per cent; manufacturing, with $440m or 2.5 per cent; and agriculture, with $10m.

Providing the country of destination from where the investments would come, Sadiku said investors from United Kingdom made a commitment of $9bn or 50.3 per cent; investors within the country, $4.21bn, representing 23.6 per cent; while investors from the United States pledged the sum of $2.35bn.

There is also an investment commitment of $1.2bn from China; $847m from Switzerland; while other countries had a combined figure of $262m.

Sadiku noted that although most of the announced investments had yet to mature, the commission now had a seamless collaboration with the states to enable it monitor closely investments inflow into the country as a one stop centre.

She said, “This figure gives us a sense, but I tell you that there are investments that may not be disclosed, since investors are not really under obligation to do so.

“We are interested in seeing more Nigerians invest in the country, and we have a Domestic Direct Investment model now in the commission, and we are working with the National Bureau of Statistics to track investments inflow into the country.

“The current efforts of the NIPC in working more closely with the states is to increase the level of investment inflow into the country and to ensure seamless collaboration and proper tracking.”