NIPC announces $12.71bn investment in Q1

THE Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC), says it has tracked investment announcements in the economy worth $12.71 billion in the first quarter of 2019.

The commission made the disclosure in its “Report on Investment Announcements in Nigeria,” on its website on Thursday.

It said that the investments were tracked through the commission’s Intelligence Newsletters issued six days a week.

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the commission’s Intelligence Newsletter carries Nigerian investment-related news, culled from various sources.
The Report showed that a total of 24 projects across eight states were announced from investors in 12 countries.

“Comparatively, the investments announced for Q1, 2019 were 57 per cent less than the size announced in the same quarter in 2018.

“This was probably due to the general elections that took place in Q1, 2019,” it said.

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According to the report, major announcements were from Royal Dutch Shell Plc. with $10 billion in crude exploration and Moroccan OCP Group’s plan to build a $1.5 billion ammonia plant.

It also cited the joint venture contract between Malaysian partners and Nigerian oil company- First Exploration and Petroleum Development Company worth $901.79 million for the exploration of crude oil.

The report said that announcements from the Netherlands accounted for 79 per cent of the value, followed by Morocco at 12 per cent, Malaysia at 7 per cent, while the UK has 0.8 per cent.

According to the report, mining and quarrying sector accounts for 86 per cent, while manufacturing sector accounts for 12 per cent.

It said that the major investment destination was the Niger-Delta region of the country with 98 per cent of the value announced.

The commission noted that the report was based only on investment announcements cited in the commission’s Newsletters from January to March.

“It may not contain exhaustive information on all investment announcements in Nigeria during the period, nevertheless, the report gives a sense of investors’ interest in the Nigerian economy,” it said.

The commission, however, said it did not independently verify the authenticity of the investment announcements, but was working on tracking the announcements as they progress to actual investments.