INSECURITY AND ITS EFFECT ON FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT IN NIGERIA, 1999-2020

Abstract

Nigeria has unconsciously joined other sovereign nations of the world currently witnessing an upsurge in insecurity. The country has had its own fair share of decline in foreign investment flows with its concomitant effect of economic downtimes as a result of insecurity.In recent times insecurity in Nigeria has assumed different dimensions ranging from wanton destruction of lives and properties of the nation. This work took a look at the spate of insecurity and its effect on the flow of foreign direct investment in Nigeria. The study covered the period 1999 Q1 to 2020 Q3 and relied mostly on secondary source of data obtained from authoritative journals, academic articles, newspaper publications and the internet. The analytical technique adopted in this study shall be mainly the descriptive technique which shall employ the use of narrations and tables and which shall be done in the body of the work. The emerging result after theoretical and empirical reviews revealed a negative correlation between insecurity and foreign direct investment in Nigeria. The two variables clearly exhibited dialectical opposition to each other. Where there is high insecurity phenomenon, foreign direct investment flows are limited and the reverse holds too. In conclusion, the study recommended that for the country to move along the trajectory of growth and development, there is the obvious need to overhaul the entire security architecture in the country. A pragmatic, proactive and just on time measure to curb insecurity need to be urgently initiated and sustained in the country for economic growth.