According to the monthly capital flow statistics by the Central bank of Nigeria, Foreign portfolio investment-equity is the dominant source of capital inflow in Nigeria. While capital inflow generally declined from 2015, not until May of 2017 did capital inflow start increasing in Nigeria, with portfolio investment- equity reached $801 million in August 2017 and portfolio investment-money market instrument reaching a peak of 1.5 billion in January 2018. However, while portfolio investment draws huge funds, foreign direct investment has been very low, from January 2010 up to date, there has been no month in which the economy attracted a foreign direct investment that is up to half of a billion dollars.
In the capital importation report for the third quarter of 2018, released by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, it is explicit that not only does this trend of the dominance of portfolio investment persist but the fact that foreign direct investment declined on a year on year basis by over 300 percent, while it increased on quarter on the quarter basis by 3 percent. In the third quarter of 2018, Nigeria was able to attract $530 million and $1.7 billion in FDI and portfolio investment respectively.
