LONDON: The United Kingdom tops the list of countries with greatest value of capital imported into Nigeria, which stood at $1.9 billion till end of the fourth quarter of 2014. According to a recent data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the amount represents 43.2 per cent of the total capital imports.
The bureau added that the figure also represents a continuation of the decline seen since the second quarter. The fourth quarter figure was less by $939.7 million or 32.6 per cent below third quarter value of $2.9 billion.
Marginal declines were also observed in Nigeria’s second largest source of capital, the United States of America (USA). From its 2014 peak of $1.1 billion, it declined by $54.6 million or 4.8 per cent to $1.07 billion in fourth quarter(Q4). Nevertheless, its share of the total increased quarter-on-quarter, by 6.6 percentage points to a Q4 value of 23.9 per cent.
Year-on-year, the value of capital imports from the US remained relatively similar, declining by $44.5 million or 3.98 per cent, and retaining 23.9 per cent of the total, a marginal 0.02 percentage points more than the following year.
Saudi Arabia provided the third largest source of capital inflows to Nigeria. After seeing a sharp increase in imports in Q3 to $375 million, there was a further rise of $60.5 million or 16.1 per cent to reach $435.5 million in Q4. This increased its share of the total from 5.7 per cent in Q3 to 9.7 per cent in Q4.
Year-on-year growth in Saudi Arabia capital imports to Nigeria remained exceptionally high, with an increase of $428.4 million or 6,006.8 per cent from the $7.1 million imported just in 2013.
Unexpectedly, Egypt ranked fourth. With inflows of $282.1 million in Q4, it showed a rise of $231.1 million or 453.2 per cent from the preceding quarter, and $279.1 million or 9,222.2 per cent from that of the preceding year. Its share of the total subsequently rose from a negligible 0.06 per cent in Q4 of 2013, to 6.3 per cent in the same quarter of the following year (2014).
Notable also is the continued decline in the contribution of capital from Belgium. In the Q4 of 2014 Belgium capital import was $79.9 million or 1.8 per cent of the total, a decline of $253.1 million or 75.99 per cent from the Q3 total of $333.03 million, or 5.1 per cent of the total.
