Nigeria’s capital importation in the first quarter of the current fiscal years grew to $6,303.63 million, representing a significant year-on-year growth of 594.03 percent and a 17.11 percent growth over the figure reported in the previous quarter.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) attributed the geometrical increase in the capital inflow in the quarter under review primarily to Portfolio Investment, which grew from $3,477.53 million in the previous quarter to $4,565.09 million, accounting for 72.42% of the total Capital Importation during the quarter.
A classification of the capital imports by Types, namely Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), Portfolio Investment and Other Investments, showed that since the second quarter of last year, Portfolio Investment had been growing faster than the other two categories.
For instance, while Portfolio Investment accounted for 35 percent of total capital imported in the first quarter this year, the FDI and Other Investments accounted for 3.91 percent and 23.67 percent respectively of the imported capital.
According to the NBS, in the first quarter, FDI totalled $246.62 million, declining by 34.83 percent from the value recorded in Q4, 2017 and growing by 16.67 percent on a year-on-year basis, Other Investment recorded $1.49 billion in the first quarter of 2018, declining by 2.29 percent when compared to its value in Q4, 2017 and 289.25 percent compared to its value in the corresponding period of 2017.
A further analysis of the Capital Importation Report for Q1 released by the Bureau yesterday reflected that the strong growth in Portfolio Investment with total value of $4,565.1 million, which is a 1,355.66 per cent growth compared to corresponding period of 2017 or 31.27 percent growth over the preceding quarter was due to the increase in Money Market Instruments.
The money market instruments recorded a value of $3,527.60 million, accounting for 77.27 percent of total Portfolio Investments in the quarter under review.
Comparatively, the value of Foreign Direct Investment remained abysmally low, representing only 3.9 percent of total capital imported. A breakdown of the FDI inflow indicated that Equity Investment, a sub-category, contributed $246.61 million or 99.9 percent of the FDI value while Other Capital, another sub-category accounted for less than 0.001 percent of the FDI inflows.
Interestingly, the Money Market Instruments sub-category has sustained its growth trajectory over the past three quarters, recording quarterly growth rates of 603 percent in Q3, 2017, 203 percent in Q4, 2017 and in 62 percent in the first quarter of this year.
Portfolio Investment in the form of Equity and Bonds only recorded $701.61 million and $335.88 million respectively in the quarter under review while Other Investments recorded $1.49 billion in the first quarter of 2018, declining by 2.29 percent when compared to the previous quarter, but growing by 289.25 percent over the value recorded in the corresponding period of 2017.
Other Investments accounted for 23.67 percent of total Capital Importation in the first quarter of 2018 and were dominated by Loans ($1,27 billion), which accounted for 85.02 percent of the total value of its capital importation for the period.
The Loans sub-category was followed by Other Claims ($223.49 million), which accounted for 14.98 percent while Trade Credits and Currency Deposits did not record any inflow in the quarter under review.
