Nigeria has again emerged number one destination for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Africa, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

UNCTAD said in its World Investment Report 2013, titled: “Global Value Chains: Investment and Trade for Development,” that FDI inflows to Nigeria stood at $7.03billion. South Africa recorded $4.572 billion, Ghana ($3.295 billion), Egypt ($2.798 billion), and Angola (-6.898 billion), among others.

A breakdown of the Global FDI report, released yesterday, showed that Foreign Direct Investment flows to African countries increased by five per cent to $50billion in 2012, even as global FDI fell by 18 per cent.

According to the report, global FDI fell by 18 per cent to $1.35 trillion, while FDI is expected to increase to $1.45 trillion in 2013, $1.6 trillion in 2014 and $1.8 trillion in 2015.

UNCTAD said: “The road to FDI recovery is thus proving bumpy and may take longer than expected. UNCTAD forecasts FDI in 2013 to remain close to the 2012 level, with an upper range of $1.45 trillion – a level comparable to the pre-crisis average of 2005 to 2007.

“Developing countries take the lead in 2012 – for the first time ever – developing economies absorbed more FDI than developed countries, accounting for 52 per cent of global FDI flows. This is partly because the biggest fall in FDI inflows occurred in developed countries, which now account for only 42 per cent of global flows.”

In 2011, Nigeria was ranked Africa’s biggest destination FDI, with total FDI inflows of $8.92 billion. South Africa was ranked next with total FDI inflows of $5.81 billion, while other African countries such as Ghana received $3.22 billion; Congo, $2.93 billion; and Algeria, $2.57 billion worth of FDIs respectively.

Experts argued that the FDI trend had been encouraging, though Nigeria needed to continue to address its security and political challenges to improve on the trend.
Only last Tuesday, President Goodluck Jonathan inaugurated the General Electric’s $1billion service and manufacturing facility in Calabar.

The ground breaking ceremony followed the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr. Olusegun Aganga; and the Global Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of GE, Mr. Jeff Emmelt, in January.
Procter & Gamble  has also commenced a $250million  investment in Nigeria. The ground breaking for investment in Agbara Ogun state was  held in July 2012.