The source of the greatest value of capital imported to Nigeria continues to be the United Kingdom, with USD1.9 billion imported in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2014, representing 43.2 per cent of the total according to a release by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). But this figure represented a continuation of the decline seen since the Q2. The Q4 figure was less by USD939.7 million or 32.6 per cent below Q3 value of USD2.9 billion.
Marginal declines were also observed in Nigeria’s second largest source of capital, the United States of America (USA). From its 2014 peak of USD1.1 billion, it declined by USD54.6 million or 4.8 per cent to USD1.07 billion in Q4. Nevertheless, its share of the total increased quarter-on-quarter, by 6.6 percentage points to a Q4 value of 23.9 per cent.
Year-on-year, the value of capital imported from the USAs capital imports remained relatively similar, declining by USD44.5 million or 3.98 per cent, and retaining 23.9 per cent of the total, a marginal 0.02 percentage points more than the following year.
Saudi Arabia provided the third largest source of capital inflows to Nigeria. After seeing a sharp increase in imports in Q3 to USD375 million, there was a further rise of USD60.5 million or 16.1 per cent to reach USD435.5 million in Q4. This increased its share of the total from 5.7 per cent in Q3 to 9.7 per cent in Q4. Year-on-year growth in Saudi Arabia capital imports to Nigeria remained exceptionally high, with an increase of USD428.4 million or 6,006.8 per cent from the USD7.1 million imported just in 2013.
Unexpectedly, Egypt ranked fourth. With inflows of USD282.1 million in Q4, it showed a rise of USD231.1 million or 453.2 per cent from the preceding quarter, and USD279.1 million or 9,222.2 per cent from that of the preceding year. Its share of the total subsequently rose from a negligible 0.06 per cent in Q4 of 2013, to 6.3 per cent in the same quarter of the following year (2014).
Notable also is the continued decline in the contribution of capital from Belgium. In the Q4 of 2014 Belgium capital import was USD79.9 million or 1.8 per cent of the total, a decline of USD253.1 million or 75.99 per cent from the Q3 total of USD333.03 million, or 5.1 per cent of the total.
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