Investors announced $8.99bn investments in Q3 ­— NIPC

The Nigerian Investment Promotion Council (NIPC) says it tracked $8.99 billion (N3.5 trillion) investment in Q3 of 2021.

NIPC’s Director of Strategic Services, Abubakar Yerima, during a press conference on Tuesday in Abuja, stated that the investment announcement was made in 33 projects from eight states.

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Daily Trust reports that the announcement does not translate into actual investment as $2.39bn was invested in 2020 from the 16.74bn announced.

Yerima noted that Lagos State received the largest share of the announcements with 20 projects amounting to $7.29bn in manufacturing, information and communications, finance and insurance, human health and social services, and electricity.

While Rivers State recorded $300m worth with Oyo State coming third with $231m.

He disclosed that the top sectors the council is expecting investment are manufacturing (42%), electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply (25%), information and communications (23%) and transportation (7%).

He added that 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%).

On why there is huge disparity between announcement and actual investments, he said, “It takes time for an investment to become actual investment, all stakeholders have to be involved to ensure that the environment is right; the news going out should be right and the assistance given also should be in the right form.”