By Felix Khanoba
The Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) says it tracked 5.06 billion dollars worth of investment announcements in the first half of 2020.
The latest investments announcement shows a massive drop (67 percent less) in committed capital inflow into the nation’s economy when compared to the 15.15 billion dollars recorded at the same time in 2019.
NIPC, in a statement in Abuja at the weekend, said the decline is consistent with the expected downward pressure on investment flows, given the negative global economic impact of COVID-19.
The Commission listed the top destinations for the tracked investment in the first half of 2020 to include: “Kaduna State (2.61 billion dollars), Lagos State (221 million dollars), Nasarawa State (56 million dollars), Ekiti State (50 million dollars) and Cross River (15 million dollars).
“Similarly, the top five sectors were transportation and storage (40 percent), information and communication (32percent), mining and quarrying (22percent) finance and insurance (68 percent), agriculture (20percent), agriculture (6percent) and finance and insurance (3percent).”
The statement revealed that the United States of America was the most active source of anticipated investments during the period with 43 percent of the announcements. The other major sources were South Africa (31 per cent), domestic investors (16 per cent) and the United Kingdom (8 per cent).
The agency, however, stated that the investments announcements were only those sighted by NIPC and may not contain exhaustive information on all investments activities in Nigeria during the period, as the report only gives a sense of investors’ interest in the Nigerian economy.
In a related development, the management of NIPC said it has reached agreement with the staff union of the Commission to bring to an end the industrial action that last week paralysed activities in the agency
“After extensive discussions with union officials over several days, two agreements were signed by all parties on 17 July 2020, to bring the week-long industrial action to an end.
“With the signing of these agreements, the NIPC Head Office Complex will be open every working day from Monday, 20 July 2020, from 9:00 am to 2:00pm, in line with the Federal Government’s safety guidelines for staff and visitors,” a statement issued by the Strategic Communications Department of the Commission, said.
