Investments in ICT sector increase by 310% — NBS

In the first quarter of 2023, foreign investments in the communications and IT service sectors increased by 310.11 percent year over year to $238.11 million, according to the NBS.

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) show that capital importation climbed from $58.06 million in the first quarter of 2022 to $238.11 million in the first quarter of 2023.

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Foreign investments in IT services increased by 79,922.22% during the quarter under review, from $270,000 in Q1, 2022 to $216.06m.

Despite the growing implementation of 4G and 5G networks, telecoms saw a reduction in investments of 61.85%, from $57.79 million to $22.05 million.

Total capital importation into the country fell to $1.13bn in the quarter from $1.57bn in Q1, 2022.

Commenting on the foreign inflow, the NBS said, “Disaggregated by sectors, capital importation into the banking sector recorded the highest inflow of $304.56m, representing 26.89 per cent of total capital imported in Q1 2023.

“This was followed by capital imported into the production sector, valued at $256.12m (22.61 per cent), and IT Services with $216.06m (19.08 per cent).”

The NBS attributed the decline in telecoms funding to the difficulties investors had been having repatriating funds to their home country.

However, the floating of the country’s foreign exchange by the President Bola Tinubu and increasing network rollout from the telcos are expected to increase inflows in the coming quarters.