Equity investment records highest in capital importation

Equity investments also referred to as share capital investment have largely contributed to the significant growth recorded in capital importation during the second quarter of the year.

According to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the total value of capital imported into Nigeria in the second quarter of 2017 was estimated to be $1.792 billion, an increase of $884.1 million from the value recorded in Q1, signifying a growth of 95.02 per cent.

A sectoral breakdown of the capital imported, however, revealed that in Q2 2017, the value of share capital imported was $932.6 million which represents an increase of 548.5 per cent relative to the previous quarter and an increase of 168 per cent relative to the second quarter of 2016, implying that the equity investment sector was  by far the sector to attract the largest amount of capital in the second quarter of the year.

The sector to attract the second largest value was the oil and gas sector accounting for 10.6 per cent or $190.4 million of total imported capital, representing an increase of 88.4 per cent over the previous quarter but a five per cent decline when compared to the same period of last year.

The NBS further noted that the servicing and production/manufacturing sectors also attracted significant levels of capital importation in Q2, accounting for shares of 8.1 per cent, ($145.56 million) and 7.9 per cent ($141.42 million) respectively.

Four other sectors recorded no capital importation during the review period, they were fishing, transport, tanning and weaving.

Meanwhile, a year-on-year analysis of the total value of capital imported showed an increase of 43.6 per cent from the 1.04 billion recorded in Q2 2016. On a month-on-month basis, capital importation in the second quarter shows the month of May recorded the highest of amount of capital importation ($616.5 million), followed by June with $612.6 million and April with $563.3 million.

According to the NBS, the main driver of the quarterly growth in capital importation in the second quarter was Portfolio Investments, which increased by 145.7 per cent.

This was closely followed by Other Investments, which grew by 95.02 per cent and then Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), which increased by 29.8 per cent other the previous quarter.