S/Africa, Ghana net 200% investments above Nigeria in 6 months

South Africa and Ghana attracted over 200 per cent more Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) than Nigeria in the first half of 2020, Daily Trust analysis shows.

It showed that South Africa and Ghana thrived in the attraction of FDI despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed that Nigeria attracted $362.84 million FDI by June 2020 being the first half of the year.

However, according to ceicdata.com, a finance data platform, South Africa had $966.7m FDI in June 2020. This is 266 per cent of what Nigeria realised during the period; it is also $603.86 more than Nigeria’s FDI value.

The Ghana Investment Promotion Commission (GIPC) said the country attracted $785.62m of FDI within the same period. This is N422.78m higher and 116 per cent of what Nigeria attracted in the same period.

Another minus is that the Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) has no readily available data on FDI on its website like that of the GIPC.

While Ghana has $67.1bn Gross Domestic Product GDP, South Africa has $59.8bn (GDP). However, Nigeria has $446.543bn, making it the largest economy in Africa.

This means that Nigeria has an economy seven times bigger than Ghana’s and nearly eight times more than that of South Africa.

NIPC Executive Secretary Yewande Sadiku had, at a seminar in July, said the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) estimated that global FDI inflows will fall by at least 30 per cent as a result of the pandemic.

UNCTAD also noted that it will drive investments worth below $1 trillion for the first time since 2005. This is already being felt by Nigeria as data from the World Bank shows it is ahead of Ghana in FDI and only second to South Africa in the continent as of 2019.

In 2019, Nigeria recorded $3.3m FDI for the four quarters, indicating that the $362m realised in the first two quarters of this year, were a serious concern to the country.

In the same year, South Africa realised $4.6m FDI, while Ghana attracted $2.3m FDI. While South Africa led in 2019, Ghana was at least $1m FDI behind Nigeria, records show.