Telecommunications sector recorded a significant increase in foreign investments in the first quarter of this year.

Sustaining the momentum gathered in 2019, the telecommunications sector attracted a total of $157.48 million in foreign direct investments (FDIs) in the first quarter of the year.

This represents a 386 per cent increase year-on-year when compared with the $32.35 million the sector recorded in Q1 2019.

The Q1 2020 figure also showed that the sector had performed better than the preceding quarter (Q4 2019).

According to the Capital Importation statistics released by National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), quarter-on-quarter, foreign investments in the telecoms sector rose by 643 per cent as $21.17 was recorded in Q4 2019.

The investments in telecoms represented 2.69 per cent of the total capital importation into the country for the period under review. NBS revealed that the total value of capital importation into Nigeria stood at $5.85 billion in the first quarter of 2020, representing an increase of 53.97 per cent compared to Q4 2019.

The largest amount of capital importation by type was received through portfolio investment, which accounted for 73.61 per cent ($4.3 billion) of total capital importation, followed by Other Investment, which accounted for 22.73 per cent ($1.33 billion) of total capital, and then Foreign Direct Investment FDI, which accounted for 3.66 per cent ($214.25 million) of total capital imported in Q1 2020.

For the first time in five years, the sector had recorded an increase in FDIs in 2019, as it attracted $944 million against $114.43 million recorded in 2018.

New Telegraph