The type of foreign direct investment (FDI) mostly received by Nigeria in the past
decades has formed one of the central points of the discussion of the nature of investment in
development in this country acknowledged as Africa’s second largest economy. The way FDI
receipt varies by size and type by sub-national regions (especially the 36 states, Federal Capital
Territory in Abuja and the 774 Local Government Areas) forming Nigeria’s federation has so been
poorly addressed. However, scholars recently reported on the receipt of FDI in Cross River State
following the state government’s policy that is being praised by Nigeria’s federal government
agencies and international governmental organizations –including United Nations Systems in
Nigeria, among others. The praises recognize Cross River State Government’s practice of good
governance and cost-effective resource management as it confronts challenges including declining
funds hitherto allocated from the pooled federation account. The objective of this article is to is to
contribute towards understanding recent foreign direct investment in Cross River State. This
article follows on theoretical perspectives and background recently reported by presenting findings
of an empirical case study of recent and ongoing increasing investments in the Calabar Free Trade
Zone (CFTZ) city of Cross River State (Nigeria). We apply methods of descriptive case study to
inform on the increasing commitment of foreign investments towards manufacturing engagement
in Calabar urban region/environs. We present Calabar region’s previous/recent development
challenges and provide some details of the recent increasing foreign investments in the Calabar
FTZ city, before analyzing and synthesizing the recent increasing foreign investments in the
Calabar FTZ city. It is demonstrated that the recent economic dynamics would engender a set of
socio-economic, spatial and ecological/environmental responses and explain their implications to
Calabar’s overall and manifold governance dimensions and status. We recommend that further
study could focus on showing how foreign investment in manufacturing and recent dynamics in
the global economy (e.g. financial-economic crises) and sub-national investment promotion have
combined to make possible the recent increases in investment manufacturing in the Calabar
region..