The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) says there has been increased foreign capital inflow into the country as the rate at which capital flowed into Nigeria between July and August this year more than doubled, propelled by increased foreign interests in money market instruments and equities.
In the Capital Importation Data for the third quarter of 2017 released by the NBS on Monday evening, total capital imported in the third quarter was recorded at $4.145 billion, more than double the inflow in the second quarter of this year, representing an increased value of 147.5 per cent on a year on year basis.
This level of inflow of capital, according to the NBS, is the first time since the beginning of 2015 that capital hit over $4 billion in a quarter.
The boom in capital importation in Q3 2017 was mainly driven by significant growth in both Portfolio Investment and Other Investment.
Inflow for Portfolio Investment recorded at $2.767 billion in the third quarter of 2017, remained the largest component of capital import and contributed to 67 per cent of the total amount.
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The portfolio investment component expanded faster than the other two main categories with a year on year growth rate of 200.7 per cent while Foreign Domestic Investment recorded $117.6 million which fell by 65.5 per cent year on year just as Other Investment increased by 124.55 per cent compared to 2016 Q3.
Although Other Investment in 2017 Q3 more than doubled the value in the third quarter of 2016 from $516.2 million to $1,260.1 million, it remained about 30 per cent of the total capital importation.
The total amount of FDI during the quarter was recorded at $117.6 million, which declined by 57.14 per cent compared to the previous quarter and 65.48 per cent compared to 2016 Q3 due to the fall in both Equity and Other Capital investment.
This category of capital investment showed a surprising decrease in value when both Portfolio Investments and Other Investment grew strongly over the third quarter. Capital import in the form of Equity recorded $117.5 million and remained the majority of total FDI in the third quarter of 2017 while Other Capital fell from 0.3 to 0.13 million dollars from the second to the third quarter.