Good for nothing
32 Nigerian states have failed to bag foreign investments this year
Good morning, Big Brains. My name is Chigor, and I’ll be keeping you company while Margaret enjoys her break from capitalism—She’s probably somewhere sipping a drink and chilling. Wish I could relate🌚.
- Chigor
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Let’s get into today’s edition:
32 Nigerian states have failed to bag foreign investments this year
Nigerian students are getting an updated curriculum
The Big Deal
32 Nigerian states have failed to bag foreign investments this year
Big Brains, your faves have done it again, but we’re not here to drag them. We’ll let the numbers do the talking because one thing they’ll never do is lie.
So, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) recently released Capital Importation data for the third quarter of 2024, and it shows that a whopping 32, out of Nigeria’s 36 states (plus the FCT) were unable to attract foreign investment. Quick refresher: Capital Importation is the inflow of foreign funds into a country’s economy.
This NBS data also shows that Nigeria’s Capital Importation for the third quarter (Q3) of 2024 was $1.2 billion, a big decline from the $2.6 billion and $3.3 billion it gathered in Q1 and Q2 of this year.
It’s no surprise that the figures declined by 51.90% because, apparently, what’s meant to be a group project between 37 states was carried by four states alone– Lagos, Enugu, Kaduna, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Why is this a big deal?
You know that thing in secondary school where only a particular set of students are repeatedly sent to inter-school competitions because the rest are either olodos or just can’t be trusted with bringing back the trophy? This is it, and it’s not good for Nigeria.
While four states brought in the funds, NBS data also shows Nigeria’s Capital Importation grew from $3.9 billion in 2023 to $7.1 billion in 2024. While this is ordinarily supposed to be positive news, the fact that only four states were responsible for this increase shows that only the four of them have been growing and the rest have remained stagnant, waiting on Big Daddy (FG) as always for their upkeep.
If this were a one-off thing, it wouldn’t be so concerning, but it has been a pattern for a minute now. In 2023, for instance, only ten states recorded Capital Importation, while 27 did not.
A 2024 NBS report released in February also shows that 18 states consistently failed to attract foreign investment between 2021 and 2023, while another group of eight has also failed to do the same in eight years. It is 2024, and not much has improved because out of the states mentioned in that report, only two (Kaduna and Enugu) have redeemed themselves by being among the four states that attracted foreign investment this year.
By now, everyone knows that a bulk of Nigeria’s economic wahala comes from its overdependence on the oil sector; foreign investments can help diversify the country’s economy and transform it into a more stable one, but with only a handful of states doing the lord’s work, this might not be happening any time soon.
Foreign Investments come with a number of benefits like job creation, technology transfer, increased productivity, and others but Lagos and the FCT being the country’s unofficial investment magnets enjoy these benefits alone while the inequality between them and other states continues to deepen.
Even if other states are unable to attract foreign investment, those with added advantages (like Bayelsa and Rivers, which produce oil) should not experience this issue, but they do. Experts say their struggle indicates that investors lack confidence in them and this could be a result of factors like insecurity, poor governance, poor infrastructure, and limited economic activities.
Both state and federal-level reforms have to take place for this to change because if it doesn’t, Nigeria will remain in the trenches for the foreseeable future, with underperforming states increasingly relying on federal allocation, without which they struggle to fund infrastructure, public services, and take other initiatives. It also means they’ll continue dragging each other’s shirts over the allocation of VATs like we are currently witnessing with the tax reform drama.
Nigerian students are getting an updated curriculum
Nigeria’s education system is another sector that many people have had lifetime beef with because honestly, what’s there not to beef– is it the constant strike, ancient curricula or subpar infrastructure?
We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves here, but a new development might redeem the sector’s reputation and actually help the youth. On Friday, December, the DG of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa announced that the agency has partnered with the Ministry of Education to introduce digital literacy into Nigeria’s education system.
Inuwa said the curricula update is part of the government’s plan to achieve its short-term target of 70% digital literacy and its long-term target of 95% by 2030 and will be implemented across all levels of education, from kindergarten to tertiary level.
Why is this important?
That “Naija no dey carry last” mantra we like dragging Ghana and the rest with might be true for our entertainment industry but not so much for digital literacy because we’ve been carrying last like mad.
In 2022, data obtained from the World Bank’s Development Report showed that over 50 per cent of Nigeria’s population lacked digital skills.
In 2023, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Nigeria said that “only seven per cent of Nigerian youths have ICT (Information Communication Technology) skills needed for working and living in a digital economy.”
Additionally, a 2023 survey survey conducted by GetBundi, a digital education institute showed tha 85 per cent of graduates from Nigeria’s tertiary institutions have no digital skills.
The world is increasingly moving towards a digital economy, and with poor figures like the ones quoted above, Nigeria is positioned to remain a dinosaur in an ever-evolving world; the new partnership between NITDA and the Ministry of Education can remedy this, only if it is done right. Emphasis on “only if.”
For this to work, the two agencies have to stand on business and ensure that they develop a solid curriculum that will equip students with actual digital skills like coding, cybersecurity, and the rest.
If Nigeria’s typical “anyhowness” seeps into this plan, the partnership could become a wasted effort with the digital literacy subjects being taught theoretically rather than practically– you know that thing where schools offer computer science but teach with blackboard only right? That.
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