Irrespective of the challenges facing the country, the Nigerian economy attracted investments worth $1bn (about ₦305bn) in the first two months of this year.
The Statistician-General of the Federation and Chief Executive, National Bureau of Statistics, Dr. Yemi Kale, confirmed this to our correspondent in an exclusive interview in Abuja.
Kale said the investment inflows into the country in the first two months of this year exceeded what Nigeria attracted during the same period in 2016.
This, he added, was an indication that despite the challenges, Nigeria still remained one of the most attractive countries to do businesses in the world.
Kale stated, “If you look at foreign direct investments and capital importation, they dropped as low as $700m from about $20bn at the peak in 2015; but now, you have seen they are gradually going back up.
“For the first two months of the first quarter, it was already over $1bn and so the numbers suggest that things are improving.”
He said that the economy started seeing sign of recovery in the first quarter, adding that with the inflation rate reducing gradually and companies recording improvements in their profitability, the country would soon be out of recession
The NBS boss added, “If you look at the inflation rate for the last few months, you can see that prices are still rising but they are rising at a slower rate than they did previously. If you look at the trend, it was negative for almost the whole of 2016, but in the last quarter of 2016 it turned positive and we think it is going to turn positive again in the first quarter of 2017.
“If you also look at companies’ financial results, particularly manufacturing companies quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, you can see that they are returning to profitability after they ran losses the previous year.
“So, they are several indicators that you can look at that show that things are beginning to improve even if they have not yet got to the point where we are comfortable that things are fully better.”
The Federal Government in its Economic Recovery and Growth Plan is targeting an investment inflow of ₦14.67tn into the economy before the end of the 2017 fiscal period.