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FG Information $5bn FDI as 11 Funding Picks Shun Nigeria
President Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima undertook 41 journeys throughout 23 international locations of their first 17 months in workplace, spending 180 days, equal to 6 months, on overseas engagements.
Evaluation exhibits that Tinubu, with the longer mileage, logged over 124 days overseas, visiting 16 international locations on 29 journeys.
To date, the President has visited Malabo, Equatorial Guinea; London, the UK (4 instances); Bissau, Guinea-Bissau (twice); Nairobi, Kenya; Porto Norvo, Benin Republic; The Hague, Netherlands; Pretoria, South Africa; Accra, Ghana; New Delhi, India; Abu Dhabi and Dubai within the United Arab Emirates; New York, the US of America; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (twice); Berlin, Germany; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Dakar, Senegal and Doha, Qatar.
In the meantime, Shettima has spent 56 days overseas, visiting 10 international locations on 12 distinctive and recurrent journeys. He has additionally gathered over 93 flight hours.
Shettima has up to now visited Rome, Italy; St. Petersburg, Russia; Johannesburg, South Africa; Havana, Cuba; Beijing, China; Iowa and New York in the US of America; Davos, Switzerland; Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast (twice); Nairobi, Kenya and Stockholm, Sweden.
Nevertheless, regardless of the extreme diplomatic efforts, information from the Nationwide Bureau of Statistics exhibits that Nigeria recorded no overseas capital from 11 of those international locations within the first half of 2024.
Tinubu’s engagements in Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Benin Republic, Ethiopia, Ghana, Senegal, and Qatar yielded no outcomes.
Likewise, Shettima’s outreach to Russia, Cuba, and Ivory Coast failed to draw any capital influx.
Notably, even Kenya, which each Tinubu and Shettima visited, recorded no overseas funding in H1 2024, highlighting the challenges Nigeria faces in changing diplomatic engagements into tangible financial advantages.
$5.06bn From 12 Nations
In distinction, 12 different international locations contributed a complete of $5.06bn throughout the identical interval, marking a major 201.7 per cent enhance from the $1.68bn recorded in H1 2023.
Nations visited solely by Tinubu accounted for the majority of Nigeria’s funding inflows, contributing $4.16bn.
These international locations embrace the UK, Netherlands, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, India, Germany, Ethiopia, Benin Republic, Guinea-Bissau, Ghana, Senegal, and Qatar.
Amongst these, the UK made essentially the most important affect, with investments rising by 263.5 per cent, from $805.13m in H1 2023 to $2.93bn in H1 2024.
Shettima’s visits to international locations corresponding to Russia, China, Italy, Cuba, Ivory Coast, Sweden, and Switzerland generated $56.09m, a extra modest contribution to the overall capital influx.
One standout from Shettima’s visits was China, which contributed $35.64m in H1 2024, in comparison with simply $0.25m within the earlier 12 months.
Switzerland adopted with a rise from $0.01m to $19.35m, whereas Italy noticed a token influx of $0.04m for the primary time.
Three international locations, Kenya, South Africa, and the US have been visited by each leaders, yielding $1.25bn in capital inflows.
South Africa’s contribution rose sharply by 267.5 per cent, from $228.09m in H1 2023 to $838.32m in H1 2024, whereas Kenya recorded no inflows.
In distinction, investments from the US dropped by 53.5 per cent, from $367.28m to $170.86m.
The Netherlands emerged as one other prime contributor, with funding inflows rising 901.7 per cent, from $65.88m to $659.91m.
Different international locations that noticed enhancements embrace Saudi Arabia, the place investments rose from $0.03m to $147.07m, and Germany, with inflows rising from $0.81m to $19.12m.
The UAE additionally maintained a gentle influx, with investments rising barely from $209.41m to $245.19m.
N44.88m on Visas
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In the meantime, checks by our correspondent utilizing GovSpend, a civic tech platform that tracks and analyses the Federal Authorities’s spending, confirmed {that a} complete sum of N44.88m was spent by the State Home on getting visas for officers, together with aides to the President and the Vice President, in March 2024.
The GovSpend information confirmed 4 separate transactions, highlighting the prices incurred in securing long-term entry for official engagements overseas, notably to the UK and France.
On March 7, 2024, the State Home processed two funds totalling N13.01m.
The primary cost of N6.72m was issued to cowl the price of a two-year UK multiple-entry visa, whereas the second cost of N6.29m facilitated the 5-year multiple-entry visa to France for Vice President Kashim Shettima.
Additional transactions made on March 27, 2024, revealed that N31.87m was spent on visas for aides and employees members of the State Home.
Of this quantity, N25.8m was allotted for long-term UK visas for a number of aides to President Bola Tinubu, and N6.07m coated the visa issuance for different employees members of the State Home.
These funds underline the numerous bills related to the worldwide operations of presidency officers.
In the meantime, the Government Director of the Abuja-based Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, Auwal Rafsanjani, earlier mentioned that although overseas journeys are a part of governance, leaders should solely pursue engagements that fetch Nigerians the best returns.
Rafsanjani mentioned, “I feel it’s important that public officers perceive that the nation doesn’t have the assets to embark on travels with out important financial worth to the nation.
“Whereas we can not ask public officers to cease travelling altogether, they need to minimise careless and reckless bills when embarking on a few of these journeys.”
The Labour Celebration presidential candidate throughout the 2023 normal elections, Peter Obi, earlier faulted the latest overseas journeys, saying they got here at a time when the nation was grappling with home challenges.
Obi maintained that it was disturbing that Tinubu and his deputy weren’t within the nation at a time when residents wanted them essentially the most.
He wrote, “Whereas it’s debatable that with the President and Vice President absent from the Villa, there isn’t a emptiness within the Presidency, in a state of affairs the place each the President and Vice President are in a foreign country, as reported within the media yesterday, it’s regarding for a rustic with such myriads of home issues.”
It was earlier reported that International Direct Funding into Nigeria within the second quarter of 2024 dropped to $29.83m, marking the bottom stage ever recorded primarily based on accessible information as much as 2013, findings confirmed.
An evaluation of information from the most recent capital importation report by the Nationwide Bureau of Statistics exhibits that the FDI dropped by 65.33 per cent in comparison with the $86.03m recorded in the identical interval final 12 months.
It additionally dropped by 74.97 per cent from the $119.18m reported within the previous quarter of 2024.
Economists have blamed the numerous drop in FDI on naira devaluation and unstable overseas alternate market, because the naira misplaced about 40 per cent of its worth within the first six months of 2024.
Regardless of the declare by President Bola Tinubu that his administration has efficiently drawn $30bn in FDI commitments, the decline in FDI highlights the challenges Nigeria faces in attracting long-term funding amid a difficult international financial surroundings and home points.
Financial Confidential additional noticed that FDI made up solely about 1.15 per cent of the overall capital importation of $2.60bn within the quarter beneath assessment.
Additionally, overseas foreign money loans, which embrace portfolio investments and direct loans, contributed $2.55bn, representing 98.08 per cent of the overall inflows.
This desire for loans over fairness investments displays investor warning, with overseas buyers choosing safer monetary devices moderately than committing to long-term tasks.
The reliance on overseas foreign money loans highlights the continuing pattern the place short-term investments and debt devices dominate Nigeria’s capital importation panorama.
Whereas these inflows can present quick liquidity to the financial system, they don’t provide the identical stage of stability or progress potential as direct investments into bodily belongings or infrastructure.
