Foreigners Just Poured $6bn Into Nigeria — But Almost None Of It Is Building Anything

Nigeria’s books are looking flashier this quarter, and the reason is simple: the world’s investors have rediscovered their love for naira paper.

Portfolio investment inflows — the “hot money” that chases interest rates rather than factories — jumped 14.4% to $6.03 billion in Q1 2026, up from $5.27 billion the previous quarter, according to Nairametrics. For context, that’s nearly six times what came in as actual direct investment ($1.03 billion, itself down 7% quarter-on-quarter).

The bigger picture looks healthier on paper: total FX inflows hit $31.34 billion, outflows shrank, and external reserves climbed to $48.35 billion, enough to cover almost nine months of imports. CBN’s Treasury Bills and OMO auctions were massively oversubscribed, with investors bidding N24.93 trillion for just N7.97 trillion on offer — proof that everyone wants a piece of Nigeria’s short-term debt.

The catch: Nigeria’s total external liabilities also grew, to $226.58 billion, and diaspora remittances actually dipped 7.5%. J.P. Morgan recently added Nigeria back into its frontier-markets bond index, which explains some of the enthusiasm. Translation: the money loves the yield, not necessarily the country’s factories, roads or jobs — yet.

Source: Nairametrics.