NIPC: Balyesa, Delta beat Lagos to become top investment destinations for Q1 2021

The Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) says investment in Nigeria rose to $8.41 billion in the first quarter of 2021 (Q1 2021), as Balyesa and Delta states emerged top investment destinations during the period.

This was contained in NIPC’s “report of investment announcements in Nigeria (January – March 2021)”, released on Wednesday.

The investment in Q1 2021 is 75 percent more than the value in the same period in 2020 at $4.81 billion and a slight increase of 8.38 percent compared to the investments made in the previous quarter at $7.76 billion.

The NIPC said the surge in investments followed the gradual return of investors’ confidence globally after the COVID-induced decline.

The report said Bayelsa state received the largest share of the announcements with $3.6 billion in mining and quarrying.

Delta state came second with $2.94 billion worth of announcements in seaport construction and power transmission, followed by Akwa Ibom state with $1.4 billion announced in mining and quarrying.

Lagos state came fourth with announcements totalling $0.26 billion in finance, insurance, and manufacturing.

The report showed that the leading four destinations accounted for 97 percent of the total investments announced as against 56 percent in the corresponding period last year.

By sector, manufacturing received the largest investment accounting for 60 percent ($5.08 billion; followed by construction ($2.90 billion); electricity ($0.26 billion); and agriculture ($0.11 billion).

The federal government was the highest major source of investments in Q1, which accounted for 35 percent ($2.95 billion).

Other sources of investments in Nigeria were Morocco ($1.40 billion); United Kingdom ($0.24 billion), and United States ($0.08 billion).

In terms of volume, NIPC said Nigeria received 15 projects across eight states compared to Q1 2020 with 19 projects across 14 states including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The commission, however, said that its report may not contain exhaustive information on all investment announcements in Nigeria during the period under review as it is based only on the 340 news articles cited in NIPC’s newsletters from January to March 2021.