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Investors proposed to invest $6 billion in Rivers state in 2020.

This is contained in an investment announcement report published by the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC).

The NIPC said it collated investment announcements worth $16.74 billion for the year 2020.

The investment announcements collated for 2020 is 44 percent less than the value collated in 2019 ($29.91 billion).

The report said that the drop in value could be attributed to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic which disrupted global value chains and capital flows.

It said a similar downward trend was expected for actual investments recorded in Nigeria and globally.

Through its Intelligence Newsletter published six days a week, NIPC collated a total of 63 projects across 21 states and FCT during the year.

The report said that 24 of the projects were planned for Lagos, followed by Kaduna and Ekiti States with five projects each.

In terms of value, it listed the top five states as Rivers ($6 billion), Kaduna ($2.8 billion), Kogi ($1 billion), Lagos ($0.89 billion) and Ogun ($0.08 billion).

“The data further showed that the manufacturing sector had the highest number of projects (10) as well as the highest value, $8.4 billion (50 percent),” the report read.

“Transportation and storage (28 percent), information and communication (11 percent), mining and quarrying (six per cent) and Finance and insurance (three percent) made up the top five sectors for the year.

“Singapore accounted for 36 percent of the announcements collated during the period.

“The other major sources were China which accounted for 22 percent and the US which accounted for 15 percent.

“South Africa accounted for 10 percent, while UK and domestic investors accounted for nine and eight percent respectively.”

NIPC’s Intelligence Newsletter published Nigerian investment-related news, culled from various sources.

The report is based only on investment announcements cited in NIPC’s Newsletters from January to December 2020 and may not contain exhaustive information on all investment announcements in Nigeria during the period.

The NIPC said the report gives a sense of investors’ interest in the Nigerian economy.

The NIPC said it did not independently verify the authenticity of the investment announcements but was working on tracking the announcements as they progressed to actual investments.