FDI Into Nigeria Drops 15.7 Percent

Direct investments into Nigeria in the first quarter of 2018 declined by 15.7% to about $808.56 million, the Central Bank of Nigeria said in its latest report Sunday.

The decline was in relation to direct inflows in the last quarter of 2017 which stood at about $959.5million, the report showed, Naija247News reported.

In contrast, the report also showed portfolio investment inflows increased to $5.14 billion during the same period, from $3.8 billion in the previous quarter in 2017.

The report said the country’s provisional balance of payment estimates for the quarter showed an improvement, with $7.3 billion surplus compared to a surplus of about $6.18 billion in the preceding quarter.

Similarly, the country’s current account balance also improved significantly, from about $3.7 billion surplus in the last quarter of 2017 to about $4.5 billion in the first quarter of 2018.

The financial account balance indicated a net acquisition of financial assets of $10.3 billion in the review period against $3.9 billion recorded in the last quarter of 2017.

Meanwhile, the current account witnessed a positive outcome during the review period, recording a higher surplus of $4.468 billion as against a surplus of $3.656 billion and $3.417 billion in the previous quarter and corresponding period of 2017, respectively. This development was largely attributable to the increased export earnings and the net surplus in current transfers.

Besides, export earnings for the period rose by 10.2% to $14.4 billion, with crude oil and gas, which accounted for over 93.3% of total export earnings for the period, increasing by 10.1% to $13.4 billion.

Earnings from non-oil and gas and electricity exports also increased by 12.3% to $967.08 million in first quarter of 2018 when compared with the preceding quarter.

The surplus in the goods account increased to $5.752 billion in Q1 from a surplus of $5.472 billion in the preceding quarter and $2.271 billion recorded in the corresponding period of 2017.

Net out-payments for services during the review period decreased by 5.1% to a deficit of $4.445 billion when compared with the level recorded in Q4 2017. However, when compared with the level in the corresponding period of 2017 it indicated a significant increase of about 201.2%.