Studying Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment in Nigeria: An Empirical Investigation

Abstract

This research paper investigated the determinants of foreign direct investment inflow into the Nigerian economy. This is because Nigeria at present is still characterized by low economic growth, which has created other macro-economic problems like inflation, low export, unemployment, unfavorable exchange rate, balance of payment disequilibrium, etc. The study adopted the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL/Bounds testing) econometric tool to examine the determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the Nigerian economy. Data for the analysis are annual data covering the period 1981-2019, obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Statistical Bulletin several issues. The study used inflation rate (INFR), interest rate (INTR), exchange rate (EXR) and trade openness (TOPN) as independent variables. While foreign Direct Investment (FDI) was used as the dependent variable. The result indicates that exchange rate (EXR) and trade openness (TOPN) are all positive determinants of FDI in the Nigerian economy as their corresponding coefficients are positive. The result further shows that for the Nigerian economy to attract FDI significantly by one percent, exchange rate and trade openness will increase by 0.18 and 5.00 percent respectively. On the other hand, inflation rate (INFR), and interest rate (INTR) are negative determinants of foreign direct investment in Nigeria. Meaning that, an attempt to increase either of these variables would result to a decline in foreign direct investment in the country and vice versa. We therefore conclude that both EXR and TOPN had a positive and significant impact on the FDI inflow to the Nigerian economy, and are therefore adjudged positive determinants of FDI inflow into the Nigerian economy within the period 1981-2019. INFR and INTR on the other hand maintained their negative influence on FDI inflow to the Nigerian Economy, hence, are negative determinants of FDI inflow into the Nigerian economy within the period 1981-2019. Finally, we recommend that government should sustain its drive for import substitutions which will encourage export, expand its bilateral trade ties with developed economies so as to woo FDI inflows. Also, government through it monetary authorities should reduce inflation and interest rates. This will help to woo FDI inflow into the Nigerian economy.