Foreign Direct Investment Flows To Nigeria Drop 43 % To $2 Bln In 2018 ~UN

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flow to Nigeria declined 43 percent to $2 billion last year, and this represents 6.25 percent of the total flow into the continent in the period, a United Nations (UN) report has stated.

Total FDI flow to sub-Saharan Africa grew 13 percent last year to $32 billion, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development wrote in its “World Investment Report.”
Nigeria, Africa's biggest economy had experienced reclined in FDI flow last year due to major economic policy inconsistency, political risk and long dispute with Africa's biggest telecoms firm MTN.
Inflows to South Africa, Nigeria closest rival more than doubled to $5.3 billion in the same period.
However, foreign investment flow to the continent bucked a global downward trend and reversing two years of decline, according to the UN report.
Also, Ghana, which is in the midst of an oil and gas boom and saw FDI inflows of $3 billion, as West Africa’s leading destination for foreign investment. Italy’s Eni Group was behind Ghana’s largest greenfield investment project.
Ethiopia remained East Africa’s top recipient of FDI at $3.3 billion, despite an 18 percent drop compared with the year before.
Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania all saw increases in FDI inflows. Foreign investment in Uganda jumped 67 percent to a record $1.3 billion, boosted by the oil and gas development of a consortium that includes France’s Total, CNOOC of China and London-listed Tullow Oil.
“The ratification of the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement could also have a positive effect on FDI, especially in the manufacturing and services sectors,” the report said.
The AfCFTA aims to eliminate tariffs between member states, creating a market of 1.2 billion people with a combined GDP of more than $2.2 trillion.