RIVERS State dislodged Lagos State as the number one foreign investment destination in Nigeria in the first half of 2018,according to an investment profile report by the Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC). Rivers received 35% of the $45.74 billion invested in 42 projects in nine states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) during the period, the NIPC said. It was followed by Bayelsa and Lagos states with 26% each.

The sectoral analysis of the investment profile shows that mining and quarrying accounted for 61% of the total investment and manufacturing 28%. Other sectors are transportation and storage, five per cent; real estate, three per cent; and the remaining sectors accounting for three per cent.

The report also showed that the investments were from investors in 11 countries, with French companies accounting for 35% of the value, closely followed by Nigerian companies at 31%.

The report said the UK’s investment stood at 20%; Luxembourg seven percent and the remaining eight percent were from the other countries. “The top 10 announcements accounted for 43.1 billion dollars, representing 94 per cent of the value of the announcements,” the report read.

The NIPC however said the report was based only on investment announcements cited in NIPC’s newsletters from January to June 2018 and might not contain exhaustive information on all investment announcements in Nigeria during the period. “Nevertheless, the report gives a sense of investors’ interest in the Nigerian economy in the first half of 2018,” it said.

“NIPC did not independently verify the authenticity of the investment announcements but is working on tracking the announcements as they progress to actual investments.