A sizable chunk of investment capital belonging to foreign investors found its way out of the shores of Nigeria through the equities market in 2018 compared to 2017. But the Central Bank of Nigeria has expressed the hope that the trend would soon be reversed with renewed efforts to put the economy in proper shape, reports Bamidele Famoofo
In the last three years, the rate of outflow of foreign portfolio investment from the equities trading segment of the Nigerian Stock Exchange has maintained a sustainable increase. Data churned out by the NSE in January which captured the activities in the market in 2018, showed that outflow of investment capital increased by 48 percent from N435.31 billion in 2017 to N642.65billion in 2018. Outflow rate was higher in 2017 at N435.31billion compared to N261.03billion recorded in 2016.
Report of activities of both foreign and domestic investors’ participation in the equities market provided by the nation’s bourse suggests that the economy did not only suffer from increasing foreign capital outflow, but a decreasing inflow of money into the economy through equities investment by foreigners. Inflow which gathered momentum in 2017 when N772.25billion flowed into the economy representing an increase of 201 percent compared to N256.52billion inflow in 2016, dropped by 25.4 percent to N576.45billion in 2018.