NIGERIA has been ranked ninth among countries that attracted private infrastructure investment in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) in 2023.
This is according to the 2023 annual report on Private Participation in Infrastructure (PPI) released by the World Bank on Tuesday, May 14.
It shows that private infrastructure investment dwindled in the SSA among other low and middle-income countries in the review year.
The report reveals that the SSA secured $3.5 billion in infrastructure investments in 2023, recording a decrease of $1 billion from the $4.5 billion logged in 2022.
Nigeria attracted $133 million in three projects, representing 3.84 per cent of the PPI commitments secured by the SSA.
South Africa, which topped the list, attracted $1.04 billion across 11 projects, and Senegal and Tanzania each secured over $300 million.
“In 2023, SSA saw investments in 66 projects totalling $3.5 billion. This marked a 24 per cent decrease from the investment levels of the previous year and a 46 per cent decrease from the past five-year average.
“The largest contributor to the region’s PPI was South Africa, responsible for 30 per cent of the regional PPI, followed by Senegal and Tanzania. The sector receiving the largest share of PPI was energy, followed by the ICT sector,” the report read.
The ICIR reports that while every country has its investment climate peculiarity, notably, Nigeria saw a shift in foreign investment trends amid the dogged reforms of fuel subsidy removal and exchange rate unification by the new administration of President Bola Tinubu, coupled with other economic and security challenges.
The country recorded $3.9 billion in capital importation in 2023, which decreased from $5.3 billion in 2022.
It faces an infrastructural deficit that the World Bank said might take the country 300 years to fix if it continues at the pace at which it allocates resources to capital expenditure.
As such, the country’s ability to attract and secure international finance is crucial for its ongoing and future infrastructure projects.
While Nigeria seems not to be intentional about economic development by putting the necessary infrastructure in place, South Africa, for instance, is showcasing a diversified approach to infrastructure development with significant commitments in both the energy and ICT sectors.
Similarly, Senegal and Tanzania are becoming increasingly attractive to investors with their focus on energy and transport infrastructure.
Despite the decline in total investment, the World Bank report shows that more countries received private investments in infrastructure across a wider sample of projects.
In the review year, 68 countries received investments across 322 projects, compared to 54 countries and 260 projects in 2022.