Nigeria records capital importation of $908.3m Q1 2017

The total value of capital imported into Nigeria in the first quarter of 2017 was estimated to be $908.27 million.
According to National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), although this was an increase of 27.75 per cent relative to the same quarter of 2016, it was nevertheless 41.36 per cent- smaller than the value of capital imported in the previous quarter, and was the second lowest value recorded since 2007.
There was a high-profile sale of (bonds denoted in a non-local currency) during the quarter, but this has not yet appeared in the data; there is a lag between subscription and actual payment, and therefore it is possible that this will show up next quarter.
Capital importation was particularly low in January, at $187.90 million; this was only the fourth month since 2007 in which capital importation was less than $200 million.
The main driver of the quarterly decline was a fall in Other Investment, although Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) also contributed.
Portfolio investment was the only category to record an increase relative to the previous quarter.
The fall in FDI comes after four consecutive quarters of increase, and the fall in Other Investment follows three consecutive quarters of increase. However, the data is volatile and therefore the dip in Q1 may not be sustained.
Nearly all of the quarterly fall resulted from declines in capital imported into the Telecommunications and Oil and Gas sectors, which recorded unusually high values in the previous quarter.