By Godfrey AKON
The Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission, NIPC, says it tracked a total of US$8.99 billion as investment announcements for the third quarter of 2021 across the country.
The council said in a report that the amount represents about 130 per cent more than the US$3.95 billion value recorded in the corresponding period in 2020.
According to the report, a total of 33 projects were tracked across 8 states during the period, adding that the month of August was the most active during the quarter, accounting for 64 per cent of the total announcements.
“The top 10 announcements accounted for 96% of the volume tracked. Compared to Q3 2020, there is a marked improvement in the level of confidence in the investing community post COVID-19,” it said.
A breakdown of the report shows that Lagos State received the largest share of the announcements with 20 projects accounting for US$7.29 billion or 81 per cent of the total in manufacturing, information and communications, finance and insurance, human health and social services, and electricity.
“Rivers State recorded US$300 million worth of announcements in manufacturing and transportation, and Oyo State had US231 million announced in electricity and trade (e-commerce). The 4 States accounted for 87% of the total investments.
“The top sectors were manufacturing (42%), electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply (25%), information and communications (23%) and transportation (7%). Domestic investors were the most active during the period accounting for 47% of the announcements, followed by announcements from South Korea (22%), South Africa (16%), and the Kingdom of Spain (6%),” it said.
NIPC clarified that its report is based only on the news articles cited in NIPC’s Newsletters published from July to September 2021; it may not contain exhaustive information on all investment announcements in Nigeria during the period.
“Nevertheless, the Report gives a sense of investors’ interest in the Nigerian economy. NIPC did not independently verify the authenticity of the investment announcements but is working on tracking the announcements as they progress to actual investments,” it added.
