Imo state Commissioner for Budget, Economic Planning and Statistics, Dr C.C. Osuala has described reports pitching Imo among states which foreign investments dropped or failed to attract foreign investments during the year as a poor reflection of the true picture of developments on ground.
A recent report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on the latest Nigerian Capital Importation for 2021 said the value of capital importation into Nigeria fell by 30.78 percent to $6.7 billion in 2021; from $9.68 billion in 2020 and stated how the 36 states of the federation fared.
Speaking to Blueprint in Owerri on the report, Dr Osuala noted that the Bureau was not vivid on the area of focus, adding that in capital importation, different areas or fields could be considered.
Explaining further, he said NBS could not say whether it was in agriculture, commerce or any other field that it based its analysis, because capital importation could also be carried out in those areas as well as in many other areas of human endeavour.
He pointed out that Capital Importation “does not only mean capital or physical cash” as it could also come in form of importation of equipment, skilled labour, drugs etc and when done, capital is still attached to them or imported.”
He frowned at a situation in which the report said Imo performed below states like Anambra, which attracted $4.7 million; Kano which attracted $2.55 million; Oyo, $2.0 million; Ogun, $1.06 million etc, saying the foreign investments attracted in the Ministry of Budget, Economic Planning and Statistics alone, without taking into consideration those of other ministries, was far more than what the aforementioned states attracted as foreign investments in 2021.
He further disclosed that the World Bank’s SFTAS grant attracted by his ministry for the state as a result of transparency in budgeting was more than what these states attracted as foreign investments, “a situation which leaves the report with some error.”
He said the state has continued to attract more as it just attracted $500, 000 from World Bank as a result of its budgeting performance in the first quarter of the year
