Despite allocating a significant amount of funds, totalling N21.04 billion, towards foreign trips over the past three years, 14 states of the federation have failed to attract any foreign investments into their respective domains.
ADULAWO News gathered that the affected states are Bauchi, Bayelsa, Benue, Borno, Cross River, Ebonyi, Edo, Gombe, Imo, Jigawa, Nasarawa, Taraba, Yobe, and Zamfara.
ADULAWO News reports that between 2021 and the third quarter of 2023, the listed states were unable to secure any portion of the $14.85bn that foreign investors directed towards Nigeria.
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During the period from 2021 to 2023, Bauchi reportedly spent N3.81bn on foreign trips without yielding any tangible results.
Similarly, Bayelsa spent N1.99bn, Benue spent N1.33bn, Borno spent N1.73bn, Cross River spent N663.16m, Ebonyi spent N1.01bn, Edo spent N1.77bn, Gombe spent N32.09m, Imo spent N541.23m, Jigawa spent N1.10bn, Nasarawa spent N541.26m, Taraba spent N2.52bn, Yobe spent N1.24bn, and Zamfara spent N2.77bn.
The figures regarding foreign trips were obtained from state budget performance reports, which were sourced from Open Nigerian States.
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It is worth noting that some states did not have complete budget performance reports, with some only providing data for two quarters in certain cases.
Additionally, Kebbi did not receive any foreign direct investments during the review period. However, due to the lack of available data on the amount spent by the state on foreign-related trips, it has been excluded from this report.
ADULAWO News gathered that the states mentioned in this report, such as Zamfara, Jigawa, and Nasarawa, have experienced a lack of foreign investments in the last few months.
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This lack of investment is in line with a broader decline in investments throughout the country, which can be attributed to issues of insecurity and other concerns.