Mining, quarrying top investors preference in 2019

By Miriam Humbe

The Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) has reported that $29.91 billion were tracked as investment announcements for the year ended, 2019.
The amount is 204% less than what was tracked in 2018 (US$90.89 billion). The huge difference may be attributed to the uncertainty around 2019 as an election year in the country, which may have contributed to the perception of the economy, and ultimately affected investors’ sentiments.
Further analysis of the announcements by sector showed that the investors preferred mining & quarrying $21.5 billion (72%), manufacturing $3.2 billion (11%), electricity, gas & water supply $2.3 billion (8%) and transportation & storage $2 billion (7%).
These announcements were tracked through the NIPC Intelligence Newsletter, a publication (published 6 days a week) by the Commission.
The Report showed that a total of 76 projects were announced across 17 states plus the Federal Capital Territory and offshore Nigeria.
Lagos State had the greatest number of projects with 33 followed at a distance by Ogun with 5 and Kaduna with 3.
In terms of value, $19.8 billion (66%) worth of investments was announced to be located offshore Nigeria, $2.6 billion (9%) in Lagos, and $1 billion (4%) in Ondo.
Domestic investors were the most active, announcing 39 projects with a total worth of $10.8 billion (36%), followed by Netherlands, 1 project worth $10 billion (33%), Canada, 3 projects worth $2.4 billion (8%), Morocco, 2 projects worth $2.1 billion (7%), Malaysia, 2 projects worth $1 billion and Singapore announced 1 project worth $1 billion (3%) each.
NIPC’s Intelligence Newsletter publishes Nigerian investment-related news culled, from various sources. The Report is based only on investment announcements cited in NIPC’s Newsletters from January to December 2019.
Although it may not contain exhaustive information on all investment announcements in Nigeria during the period, nevertheless, the Report gives a sense of investors’ interest in the Nigerian economy.
NIPC did not independently verify the authenticity of the investment announcements but is said to be working on tracking the announcements as they progress to actual investments.