Stakeholders have expressed concerns over the rapid decline in foreign direct investment (FDI), despite consistent assurances from the Federal Government that it would improve.

They said rather than improving, even with numerous foreign trips of the political leaders to woo foreign investors, the figure worsened, adding further strain to the weak economy. Going by data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Nigeria was averaging $417 million FDI per quarter a decade ago.

This, however, dropped to $29.83 million as per the last Q2 data, a decline of 173.32 per cent in about 10 years.
NBS data dating back to 2012 showed that this is Nigeria’s worst quarterly FDI performance on record.

While total capital inflows in Q2 stood at $2.6 billion compared to $3.38 billion in the previous quarter and $1.03 billion in Q2 2023, it declined by 22.85 per cent when compared to Q1, 2024.

President of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Gabriel Idahosa, said the drop in FDI reflected the unfavourable investment climate, which has affected investors’ confidence in the Nigerian economy. Lamenting the tough business environment, which he said has led to the exit of multinationals and the shutdown of businesses in the last few years, he said the government needed to stop paying lip service to ease of doing business.

“The FDI performance indicates that we need to do more to improve our business environment to attract more foreign investments, especially in power, renewable and CNG projects, oil and gas and telecommunications sectors. More than ever, we direly need the influx of foreign investors and to work hard to retain those that are still here” he stated.

An economist, Dr Vincent Nwani, said while the decline is sad and worrisome, it is not unexpected. He said the government turned deaf ears to warnings by experts, refusing to improve the situation.

He said the government does not need to step out of Nigeria to look for investors as businesses naturally gravitate towards countries where they are guaranteed safety, a fair judicial process and high returns on investments.