(Bloomberg) -- Nigeria’s capital inflows fell in 2023 as foreign direct investments and inflows from portfolio investors declined, the West African nation’s statistics agency said. 

Inflows fell 26% to $3.9 billion in 2023 from $5.3 billion the previous year, the Abuja-based National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement on its website. Portfolio inflows declined by about a half to $1.1 billion, while foreign direct investments were down 19% to $377 million, it said.

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Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and with one of the continent’s largest economies, is struggling with economic challenges driven by a weak revenue base, soaring debts, high inflation and an acute foreign currency shortage. 

That’s discouraging foreign investor inflows and causing some companies to exit. President Bola Tinubu’s government has initiated a series of fiscal and monetary policy reforms since assuming power in May in an effort to improve the economy outlook and attract inflows.

Capital inflows rose 2.6% in the fourth quarter of 2023 compared to year ago, to $1.1 billion, the statistics agency said. They were up 66.3% when compared to the third quarter. 

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