Foreign Direct Investment, FDI, inflow into Nigeria took a nosedive of 56 per cent from $395 million in quarter one of 2015 to $175 million by the first quarter of 2016, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo disclosed on Thursday, August 11.
This was even as Foreign Portfolio Investment, FPI,, through the capital market, plunged by 85.5 per cent since the first quarter of 2015.
The drop in FDI and FPI was disclosed by the Vice President at the Presidential Policy Dialogue organised by the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) in Lagos yesterday.
Osinbajo explained that FPI, which averaged $621 million in Q1 of 2015, had declined to $90.3 million by Q1 of 2016 as inflation rose to 16.5 per cent.
He listed the hitches to include ‘‘Depreciation of the naira, increase in importation costs due to scarcity of forex. GDP declined from 6.3 per cent in 2014 to 2.15 per cent in 2015 and -0.36 per cent in Q1 2016,” he said.
The Vice President said earnings from oil declined in the past eight months due to vandalism on pipelines and export assets in the Niger Delta while power output fell from 5,000MW in February to about 2,500MW recently on account of over 60 per cent loss in gas production due to pipeline vandalism.
After stating the problems with the economy, Osinbajo highlighted steps the government was taking to revive it. He said some of the steps taken in this regard include priority attention given to assist states and local governments to pay salaries of workers, which were several months in arrears and the latest loan of N90 billion as part of a fiscal responsibility plan for states.
He also said the Federal Government has already made capital releases of N332 billion, with another N100 billion set to be released in the next few days.
