Nigeria records capital inflow of $908 million in Q1

Nigeria recorded $908 million capital importation in the first quarter ended March this year, capital importation report for the period has indicated.

Of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Lagos, Akwa-Ibom, Ogun, Oyo and Rivers states attracted the interest of foreign investors in the first quarter of this year. They received $908.268 million that came into the country in the first three months of the year as capital importation.

As the commercial nerve center of Nigeria, Lagos State accounted for 95 per cent of the capital inflow in the first quarter of the year.

A total of $865.718 million flowed into the state which houses the Nigeria Stock Exchange and the head offices of the commercial banks, as well as the telecoms companies in the country.

Foreign investors also put in $18.361 million into one of the tourism hubs in the country, Akwa-Ibom, while there was an inflow of capital importation of $14.867 million into the seat of Federal Government, FCT, Abuja.

Up-coming industrial hub, Ogun state also had a capital importation of $5.351, while Oyo and Rivers states recorded capital inflow from outside the country in the first three months of the year, totaling $3.419 million and $550,000 respectively.

The total value of capital imported into the country in the first quarter, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, was put at $908.268 million, representing a 27.75 per cent improvement, when compared to the volume of capital imported into the country in the first quarter of 2016.

The amount that came in was however 41.36 per cent smaller than the value of capital imported in the previous quarter, and was the second lowest value recorded since 2007, although the NBS said it was yet to include in the data the amount involved in a high-profile sale of local bonds which was held in the first quarter due to a lag between subscription and actual payment.

Meanwhile the origin of the capital imported showed that the largest capital came from the United Kingdom which accounted for $302.47 million, representing 33.5 per cent of the total capital imported into Nigeria in the first quarter of the year. This was a 37.36 per cent decline compared to the amount that came in from the country in the last quarter of 2016.

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