The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), Aminu Umar-Sadiq, has said the agency developed 500,000 affordable homes for low-income families.
The agency disclosed that 245,000 direct jobs have been created across sectors since its inception 12 years ago.
Umar-Sadiq said this when the House of Representatives Committee on Finance visited the NSIA on oversight.
He said the Authority also supported over 236,000 farmers through its agriculture investments.
Umar-Sadiq said they had also served as project managers for the development of a 10MW solar project in Kano State, creating over 500 direct and indirect jobs on the project, as well as delivered three motorway projects with a total length of 515.4km.
He said they successfully completed three hospital projects with over 282,100 unique patients attended to and 150,000 chemotherapy sessions delivered.
He added that NSIA has catalysed consequential projects with far-reaching implications across pivotal sectors including technology.
He also said the Authority has implemented the NSIA Prize for Innovation Programme (NPI) to enable the development of the technology eco-system and reposition Nigerian tech talents for global relevance.
He added that NSIA, in collaboration with Guarantco, established the Infrastructure Credit Guarantee Company in 2016 to enhance the credit quality of debt instruments issued to finance credit-worthy infrastructure assets in Nigeria.
He said Infracredit has so far achieved financial closure of 21 infrastructure projects and guaranteed a total debt size of 218bn.
“Also, through its stake in Family Homes Fund, NSIA has significantly improved the quality of life of Nigerians from low-income families through the development of 500,000 affordable homes for low-income families in Nigeria.
“Additionally, NSIA continues to demonstrate its commitment to positive socio-economic outcomes through key platforms like the Nigerian Mortgage Refinance Company (NMRC), through which it improves the liquidity of the mortgage market to promote affordable housing in Nigeria.
Deputy Chairman of the House Committee on Finance, Saidu Musa Abdullahi said the visit was the first by his committee to the agency.
He said they were only interested in fiscal prudence.
He stressed the need for the agency to increase its investment in the agricultural sector and grow the sugar cane value chain which he said is currently generating over 40 billion dollars annually for Brazil.
He lamented that the sugar factories that were privatised have not yielded the dividend required.
Abdullahi said there was a need for the Nigerian government to take back the sugar factories that were privatised.
He said that the Niger state government was planning a 250-hectare of farmland for sugar which he said will generate about one billion dollars for the state.
He said the NSIA ranked among the best sovereign wealth funds globally, ranking joint first with New Zealand in 2023.
