Capital importations by Nigerian businesses rose by 216.03 percent in first quarter of 2019 with the total capital import value reaching, $8.48" billion from $2.1 billion in fourth quarter of 2018, figures from National Bureau of Statistics have shown.

In a report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), this figure represents a rise of 216.03 per cent when compared with the figure of $2.14bn in the fourth quarter (Q4) of last year and 34.61 per cent increase in respect of the first quarter of 2018.

The report showed that portfolio investment accounted for 84.21 per cent ($7.14 billion) as the largest amount of capital importation.

Other investments accounted for 12.91 per cent ($1. 09 billion) followed by Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), which was 2.86 per cent, amounting to $243.36 million of total capital imports in first quarter.

The banking sector attracted $2.85 billion of the total capital imports in the Q1 with Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc leading in terms of capital investment into the country during the first quarter.