NSIA has created over 245,000 direct jobs since inception, says MD

The Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) has said the sovereign wealth fund (SWF) catalysed over 245,000 direct and 315,300 indirect jobs in the last 10 years.

Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of NSIA, Aminu Umar Sadiq, stated this, yesterday, at a media parley in Abuja.

He said the agency was committed to sustaining a diversified assets strategy to ensure better returns for the country.

According to him, NSIA’s total assets have grown to N1.02 trillion at the close of its 2022 financial year.

He said the figure revealed a 10.5 per cent growth from the N919.73 billion recorded in 2021.

In the presentation that showed the investment institution’s full 2022 performance report, he said its non-volatile revenue, such as interest income, revenue from infrastructure business and management fees earned from fiduciary activities, increased by 34.5 per cent (N15.7 billion) year-on-year.

He said that NSIA’s total comprehensive income stood at N96.96 billion in 2022, representing a decline of 34 per cent compared to 147 billion in 2021, attributing the fall to macroeconomic headwinds.

Sadiq, however, said though the firm’s earnings are lower than that of 2021, he remained confident in its investment strategy and would continue to explore opportunities to mitigate risks and achieve its investment objectives.

“We are committed to ensuring that Nigeria’s SWF consistently ranks high in the league of state-owned funds in terms of transparency, governance and performance. Our foray into some new terrains underscores our resolve to ensure that optimal returns are generated through responsible investing.

“For emphasis, we have, on behalf of the present and future generations, expanded our focus sectors to include climate finance, renewable energy, innovation and technology. This is in addition to the priority sectors we have maintained over the years –agriculture, motorways, power, healthcare and gas industrialisation.”

He said the 2022 fiscal year was marked by unprecedented shocks, such as the COVID-19 lockdown in China, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, food and energy crises, supply-chain disruption, soaring inflation and monetary tightening, which impacted the financial markets.

“But our well-diversified portfolio continues to provide the resilience to withstand market challenges as evidenced by the results. Against market expectations and internal forecasts, NSIA closed the 2022 financial year with a respectable performance. This result underscores the robustness of our diversified portfolio and the excellent commitment of the team,” he said.

As the firm looks to the future, the chief executive said, it is resolute in its commitment to delivering increased investments in critical sectors of the economy, driving growth across its funds and attracting third-party capital into Nigeria’s infrastructure sector.

The key projects the NSIA delivered in 2022 cut across core sectors of focus and the implementation of specialised Federal Government initiatives.

They include, projects in the agriculture sector, like the Presidential Fertiliser Initiative and the opening of the Pandagric Novum farm, a joint venture between NSIA and Signature Agri Investment for the cultivation of maize and soybeans and connected to a 147,000 metric tons per yearly capacity poultry feed mill.