Foreign investments in Nigeria’s manufacturing industry went up by $644m in 2023 to $1.5bn from $948m in the prior year, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics.

The NBS in its capital importation report stated that manufacturing ranked first as the sector with the most investments.

The banking and finance sectors (treated separately) came a distant second and third as the sectors that made up the top three investment magnates.

Investments in manufacturing in 2023 ($1.5bn) constituted 39 per cent of the total capital importation during the year ($3.8bn)

Foreign investments to Nigeria shrank by $1.5bn to $3.8bn against $5.4bn recorded in 2022.

By type, other investments attracted $ 2.37bn to the total capital importation, followed by portfolio investment at $1.1bn and foreign direct investment bought in $377.3m.

Lagos State was the top destination in 2023 with $2.5bn, followed by Abuja with $1.1bn. Abia and Rivers States recorded $150m and $6m, respectively.

Other states that attracted investments in 2023 were Ogun, Ekiti, Abia, Akwa Ibom, Anambra and Adamawa.

29 states failed to attract any investments during the period.

In recent years, foreign investments in Nigeria have been on a consistent decline.

According to NBS, foreign investment inflow into Africa’s largest economy declined by $18.6bn in four years (2019-2022).

During the four years, eight states failed to attract any form of foreign investment.

The affected states were Taraba, Yobe, Zamfara, Bayelsa, Ebonyi, Gombe, Jigawa and Kebbi.

According to the data, Nigeria attracted $23.9bn as foreign investments in 2019.

By 2020, the figure declined to $9.6bn, dipping further to $6.7bn the following year, before decreasing to $5.3bn in 2022. This implies a $18.6bn decline over the four-year.

In total, the most populous Black Country in the world raked in about $46bn in the four years.

Lagos State led with the highest foreign investments ($35.4bn), while Federal Capital Territory followed with $10bn foreign inflow.