In the midst of the ravaging pandemic that is biting hard the economy, Major Nigerian banks have made a worthy input toward attracting investment into the country
The Nigerian banks include Access Bank, Ecobank, Nigeria First Bank of Nigeria, FBN, Guarantee Trust Bank, Standard Chartered Plc, Stanbic IBTC, Citi Bank, Access Bank, Ecobank Nigeria, and 20 others which reportedly attracted foreign investment worth over $5.85 billion in Q1 2020.
This is part of the information contained in Nigeria’s Q1 2020 Capital Importation report by the National Bureau of Statistics.
The Nigerian Capital Importation report disclosed that Citi Bank and the local unit of Rand Merchant Bank joined Standard Chartered Bank and Stanbic IBTC Bank to become foreign investors’ favourites for investment deals.
The report also showed that out of the 27 banks that foreign investors used to deploy foreign capital into the country, the most investment came through Standard Chartered Bank. The bank attracted $1.656 billion worth of investment in the first quarter of this year, compared to $1.076 billion during the comparable quarter in 2019.
Stanbic IBTC followed with $1.37 billion worth of foreign investment, while Citi Bank Nigeria occupied the third position having attracted $688.44 million inflows as against $770 million recorded in Q1 2019.
First Bank got $677.61 million, Rand Merchant Bank got $611.68, Access Bank got $257.31 million, GTBank, $91.46 million, UBA Plc $79.60 million, and Union Bank of Nigeria had $43.30 million.
In terms of capital importation by country of origin, the report also revealed the top 10 highest and lowest countries that invested in Nigeria.
The total value of capital importation into Nigeria stood around $5.85 billion in the first quarter of 2020. This represents an increase of 53.97% compared to Q4 2019, and -31.19% decrease compared to the first quarter of 2019.
The largest amount of capital importation by type was received through portfolio investment, which accounted for 73.61% ($4,309.47m) of total capital importation. This is followed by Other Investment, which accounted for 22.73% ($1,330.65m) of total capital, and then Foreign Direct Investment FDI, which accounted for 3.66% ($214.25million) of total capital imported in Q1 2020.