The Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission announced on Friday that investment pledges rose to $23.30bn in 2021.
The acting Executive Secretary, NIPC, Emeka Offor, who disclosed this at a media briefing in Abuja, said investment pledges increased by $6.56bn from $16.74bn in 2020.
“The 2021 Investments Announcement Report indicated that $23.30bn was tracked during the year, representing about 39 per cent more than the value tracked in 2020, $16.74bn,” he said.
He attributed the increase to gradual global economic recovery after the disruption occasioned by the restrictions imposed to check the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Offor said the rise was also indicative of the growing confidence of investors in the efforts of the government to improve the national investment landscape.
He noted that tracking investors’ readiness to invest in Nigeria was necessary to enable the commission to create an effective strategic plan to serve as a guide for the next five years.
He said validating the records of the announcements would also help the commission in its quest to mobilise capital for the implementation of the National Development Plan.
Offor said, “The competition for capital has become more intense amidst a drop in global volume.
“The work for NIPC in the next five years has been appropriately defined by the National Development Plan 2021 – 2022. The plan has projected a capital requirement of N348.7tn with 86 per cent (N298.3tn) expected to be provided by the private sector.
“Mobilisation of this capital has become the focus of the commission. It is in this respect that the commission has begun the process of validating the records of the investment announcements. We expect the report from this exercise to give us a further understanding of investors’ readiness to invest in Nigeria.”
On investment announcements by states, he said Lagos attracted the highest pledge with $8.7bn, followed by Bayelsa ($3.6bn), Delta ($2.9bn), Akwa Ibom ($2bn), and Adamawa ($1bn).
The manufacturing sector recorded the highest number of projects (20) as well as the highest value of $10.5bn, representing 45 per cent of total investment announcements.
“Construction (16 per cent), electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply (13 per cent), information and communication (12 per cent), and mining and quarrying (nine per cent) made up the top five sectors for the year,” Offor added.
He said the commission would continue to engage with states to stimulate healthy competition for investments across the country.
