Foreign investments into Nigeria dropped in the first quarter of 2025, according to a new Balance of Payments (BoP) report released by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Both foreign direct investment (FDI) and portfolio inflows saw notable declines.
The report shows that FDI fell by 19.35% from $310 million in Q4 2024 to $250 million in Q1 2025.
“The financial account recorded a balance of US$7.58 billion in Q1 2025, as against US$7.82 billion in Q4 2024, as a result of huge reduction in portfolio and other investments liabilities,” the apex bank said.
A major contributor to the decline was the sharp drop in portfolio investment:
“Portfolio investment (PI) liabilities (inflows) into the economy overturned to a record net divestment/reversal of $5.03 billion in Q1 2025.”
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“Direct investment (DI) inflows declined slightly to $0.25 billion in Q1 2025, from $0.31 billion in Q4 2024.”
The report also highlighted the reversal in other investment categories: “Other investment (OI) liabilities recorded a huge reversal of $4.32 billion in Q1 2025. OI assets recorded an investment outflow of $1.31 billion in Q1 2025 as against a reversal of $1.54 billion in Q4 2024.”
Nigerian investments abroad were also affected: Direct investment assets “recorded a reversal of $0.55 billion in Q1 2025, while portfolio assets recorded an investment outflow of $0.48 billion in the review period”.
On external reserves, the CBN disclosed a significant fall: External reserves dropped from $40.19 billion in December 2024 to $37.82 billion in March 2025 a reduction of $2.37 billion within three months.