A total of 63 projects across 21 States of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory in 2020, the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) has reported.
The NIPC said the projects to be sited in 21 States and the Federal Capital Territory are valued at about $16.74 billion.
Contained in the latest investment announcements reports covering January to December 2020, the NIPC said the value of the projects is about 44 percent less than the corresponding value of $29.91 billion of projects tracked in 2019.
The drop in value of investment announcements, the investment promotion agency said, was attributed to the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted global value chains and capital flows.
The NIPC said a similar downward trend in investment announcements is expected for actual investments recorded in Nigerian and globally as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to bite harder on the global economy.
The NIPC said 24 of the projects were planned for Lagos State, with five each planned for execution in Kaduna and Ekiti.
The top five States in terms of investment announcements during the year include Rivers State with proposed projects valued at $6 billion, Kaduna State ($2.8 billion), Kogi State ($1 billion), Lagos State ($0.89 billion), and Ogun State ($0.08 billion).
The report showed that the manufacturing sector recorded ten, or 50 percent of the total number of proposed projects in the top five sectors of the economy that attracted the interest of prospective investors valued at $8.4 billion.
This is followed by the transportation and storage sector, which account for 28 percent of the investment announcement; information and communication (11 percent); mining and quarrying (6 percent), and finance and insurance (3 percent).
Further details from the report showed that Singapore accounted for 36 percent of the announcements tracked by the NIPC during the year, followed by China (22 percent), United States of America (15 percent), South Africa (10 percent), United Kingdom (9 percent), and domestic investors (8 percent).
The report showed that an investor in the Mining and Quarrying sector from Singapore announced $6billion investment in October to be executed in Rivers state in partnership with Indorama Petrochemicals and Fertilizer.
Other investors in that sector with investment announcements include a Nigerian firm, African Industries Group, planning to invest $600million in Kaduna and a UK company, Savannah Petroleum that is planning to invest $390million in the country.
In July, Bank of China and Sinosure of China announced plans to invest $2.6billion in the transportation and storage sector in Kaduna, Kano and Kogi, same as 328 Support Services GmbH that unfolded plans in January 2020 to invest about $2billion in Kaduna.
Similarly, MTN South Africa announced in January 2020 to invest about $1.6billion to invest in the Information and Communications sector.
In the manufacturing sector, Sinoma CBMI of China plans to invest $1.05billion in Adamawa, Edo and Sokoto; a UK firm, Torridon Investments plans to invest about $1billion in Kogi, while a Nigerian company, NESBITT Investment Limited plans to invest $150million to establish a manufacturing company in Kaduna.
In the Finance and Insurance sector, US firm, Stripe, has announced plans to spend $200million on an investment in Lagos.
