Foreign investment inflow into the Nigeria oil and gas industry declined sharply by 59.7 per cent to $133.51 million in 2018, compared to $331.36 million recorded in 2017, according to data obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS.

Using current exchange rate of N306.75 to a dollar, $133.51 million foreign capital inflow into the petroleum industry translated to an investment of N40.95 billion.

Analysis of the NBS, National Capital Importation Report for the Fourth Quarter of 2018, showed that in the first quarter of 2018, the petroleum industry recorded the highest foreign capital inflow, with $85.62 million.

Further analysis revealed that foreign investment inflow depreciated by 70.97 per cent to $24.85 million in the second quarter of 2018, dropping further by 68.9 per cent to $7.73 million in the third quarter of 2018, while in the fourth quarter, $15.31 million foreign investment flowed into the sector, representing an improvement of 98.06 per cent compared to the third quarter figure.

In 2017, the report showed that foreign investment inflow of $101.08 million, $190.39 million, $16.07 million and $23.83 million were recorded in the first, second, third and fourth quarters respectively.

The report further stated that foreign inflow into the petroleum industry accounted for 0.79 per cent of total capital inflow into the general economy, compared to 2.71 per cent in 2017.

Furthermore, the NBS report disclosed that the total value of capital importation into Nigeria stood at $16.812 billion in 2018 compared to $12.229 billion capital imported in 2017. According to the report, this represented a 37.49 per cent growth year-on-year.

It said: “The largest amount of capital importation by type was received through Portfolio investment, at $11.802 billion, which accounted for 70.20 per cent of total capital importation, followed by Other Investment, at $3.815 billion which accounted for 22.69 per cent of total capital, and then Foreign Direct Investment at $1.195 billion, which accounted for 7.11 per cent of total capital imported in 2018.

“By sector, capital importation by shares, which is closely related to equity investment (FDI and Portfolio Investment) dominated 2018 reaching $10.425 billion of the total capital importation in 2018.

“The United Kingdom emerged as the top source of capital investment in Nigeria in 2018 with $6.008 billion. This accounted for 35.74 per cent of the total capital inflow in 2018.”

In its analysis of capital inflow into the general economy in the last quarter of 2018, the NBS said: “The total value of capital importation into Nigeria stood at $2.140 billion in the fourth quarter of 2018. This represents a decrease of 25.05 per cent compared to third quarter 2018 and 60.24 per cent decrease compared to the fourth quarter of 2017.”

SOURCE: oglinks.news