Elections: Investment commitments down 67% in first half of 2019

The Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) says investment commitments worth $15.15 billion were made in the country during the first half of 2019.

Yewande Sadiku (pictured), NIPC executive secretary, made this known in Abuja on Wednesday while presenting the first half of 2019 investment reports.

This figure is lower than the $45.74bn recorded during the same period of 2018.

Sadiku said that the report showed that a total of 43 projects across 12 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) were announced from investors in 20 countries.

NAN reports that the destination states for the investments were Ogun, Lagos, Kaduna, Ondo, and Enugu among others while oil and gas investments are to be sited offshore.

“Comparatively, the announcements made in the first half of 2019 were 67 per cent less in value than the announcements in the same period of 2018,” she said.

“This was probably due to many investors waiting for the conclusion of national elections and handover in the first half of 2019.

“The major destination is the Niger-Delta region with 77 per cent, followed by Ondo State at seven per cent, including Lagos State at four per cent of the value announced.”

She explained that major announcements were from Royal Dutch Shell Plc, with $10 billion in crude exploration and Moroccan OCP Group’s plan to build a $1.5 billion ammonia plant in three states.

Sadiku said there was a joint venture contract between Malaysian and Nigerian oil companies, First Exploration and Petroleum Development Company Ltd. worth $901.79 million.

She said the contract was for the exploration of crude oil at the Anyala and Madu oil fields located in Niger Delta, approximately 40 kilometres offshore Bayelsa.

According to Sadiku, the NIPC Intelligence newsletter may not capture all the investment announcements during the period as it was based only on investment announcements cited in NIPC’s Newsletters from January to June 2019.