ELECTION FEVER DRAGS DRAGS DOWN FOREIGN INVESTMENT INFLOW

Total foreign capital imported into Nigeria in 2014 summed to USD20.8 billion, lower by USD576.6 million or 2.7 per cent from the USD21.3 billion imported in 2013. The capital import figure represents value of foreign investments in Nigeria’s economy in the period under review.
The year’s decline was primarily due to the reduction in the value of capital imported in the fourth quarter of 2014, which was USD4.5 billion, a sharp decline of USD2.04 million or 31.2 per cent from the value of USD6.5 billion recorded in the preceding quarter (Q3. 2014). In the just released Capital Importation Report 2014 by National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) 2014 had recorded steady upbeat in capital inflow until Q4 and the Bureau said the decline during the quarter was expected, as investor confidence declined during the build up to the presidential election which was scheduled to hold in the first quarter of
2015.

However despite this, the closing quarter of the year

2014 was still greater than the USD3.9 billion of capital

imported in the first quarter, 2014 by USD595.2 million or

15.2 per cent.

Foreign investments are usually divided into three main

investment types: Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), Portfolio

Investment and Other Investments with each comprising

various sub-sectors. Despite still making up the largest

portion of total capital imported in Q4, 2014 Portfolio

Investment, at a value of USD2.003 billion declined by

USD3.1billion or 60.9 per cent from its Q3 value of USD5.2

billion. Its subsequent share of total capital imported

therefore declined from 78.4 per cent in Q3, 2014, to just

44.5 per cent in Q4.

Year-on-year, this represented a decline of USD1.4 billion or

41.01 per cent, from the Q4, 2013 total of USD3.4 billion,

which was 72.54 per cent of total capital imported. The

decline in portfolio investment was mainly driven by declines

in the value of equity, which at USD1.5 billion in Q4 of 2014,

had declined by USD2.2 billion or 59.1 per cent from the

preceding quarter and by USD1.2 billion or 43.3 per cent

year-on-year.

However, of the three categories of foreign investment

types it was only Portfolio Investment that recorded a

decline. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) increased from a

value of USD544.5 million in Q3, 2014, by USD224.35

million or 41.2 per cent to reach USD768.86 million in Q4.

This rise in FDI continued steadily throughout 2014,

representing year-on-year growth of USD647.04 million or

USD531.14 per cent..

Other Investments also saw a sharp rise in the value of

capital imported; from the USD865.24 million recorded in

Q3 of 2014, it increased by USD861.7 million or 99.6 per

cent to its Q4 value of USD1.7 billion. Year-on-year, this

was an increase of USD563.1 million or 48.38 per cent. The

main driver of this growth was a rise in the subcategory of

other claims, which increased by USD820.6 million or

159.24 per cent, from USD515.31 million in Q3 of 2014 to

USD1.3 billion in Q4.

Within the FDI category, the increase was driven by equity,

under which USD767.8 million was recorded in the Q4, up

by USD223.6 million or 41.1 per cent from the USD544.2

million recorded in the preceding quarter, and growing by

USD653.9 million or 573.9 per cent year-on-year.