Sokoto, Ebonyi, Bayelsa and 29 other states have failed to attract any form of foreign investments this year.
This means that the 32 states have failed to attract capital importation for three consecutive quotas, between January and September 2024.
This was contained in the latest Capital Importation data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) for the third quarter of 2024.
The data shows that the number of states that failed to attract any foreign investments rose from 27 in 2023 to 32 in 2024.
The NBS data showed that only Lagos, Ekiti, Enugu, Kaduna and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) recorded capital importation so far this year.
It showed that Lagos attracted the highest chunk of $4.6 billion followed by the FCT, which recorded $2.39 billion in the first 9 months of 2024.
Ekiti attracted $120 thousand so far with $100 thousand coming in the third quarter of the year and $10 thousand each in the first and second quarter respectively.
Enugu and Kaduna states only attracted capital inflows in the third quarter of the year with $180 thousand and $1.95 million respectively.
The official statistics showed that Nigeria’s total capital importation for the third quarter (Q3) of 2024 witnessed a 51.90 percent decline from the previous quarter, falling to $1.25 billion.
This drop, compared to the $2.60 billion recorded in Q2 2024, highlights a sharp contraction in foreign investments despite an overall annual increase of 91.35 per cent from Q3 2023.
Nigeria attracted $1.2 billion in the third quarter of 2024 compared to $2.6 billion and $3.3 billion in the second and first quarter of the year respectively.
Total capital importation in the first nine months of the year totalled $7.1 billion compared to $3.9 billion in the whole of 2023.
Abia, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Niger, Ogun, Ondo and Rivers which attracted inflows in 2023 are yet to attract inflows in 2024.
However, other states that are yet to attract any inflows this year include Gombe, Jigawa, Kebbi, Taraba, Yobe, Kano, Katsina, Oyo, Ondo, Edo, Ogun, Abia, Imo, Anambra, Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Rivers, Niger, Kwara, Benue, Nasarawa, Plateau, Kogi, among others.
