- Floats 19.02% net assets growth of N919.73bn
- 2nd Niger Bridge ready December 2022
BY COBHAM NSA – Having effectively weathered the turbulent global economic storms, the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) says achieving a ninth successive year profit of N153.56 billion in the 2021 financial period signifies growing confidence and proof of its resilience and competitiveness in the business world
Additionally, the Authority, established by the Federal Government in 2012 to manage the country’s Sovereign Wealth Fund (NSWF), is excited that its Net Asset rose by 19.0 to N919.73 billion in 2021 as against the year 2020 figure of N772.75 billion
Another cheering news coming from the Authority to Nigerians is the assurance that the second Niger Bridge will be ready and commissioned by the Federal government for public use by December 2022.
Unveiling the NSIA’s impressive scorecard amid global economies’ continuous battle with the recessionary forces, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Mr Uche Orji, said in the year under review, though the Authority grew its core income to N100.8 billion in 2021, the figure was down by eight (8) per cent as against the N109.6 billion recorded in the preceding year.
Additionally, its foreign exchange gains stood at N45.8 billion in 2021 compared to the N51.2 billion recorded in 2020, a development that financial experts blamed on the worrying volatility of the nation’s forex market.
Mr Orji, who gave the figures while making the ‘2021 Financial Year Performance and Earnings Report Presentation’, explained that the N153.6 billion profit after tax was however slightly down 1.9 per cent from the year 2020 figure of N156.5 billion while the total comprehensive income dropped marginally in 2021 by 8.2 per cent to close the year at N147.0 billion compared to the N160.1 billion achieved in 2020
He said on a general note, all the three funds performed excellently on an individual basis and closed the year positively, beating their individual benchmarks, adding that the Future Generation Fund (FGF) grew by 11.98 per cent to N976.868 billion in 2021 while the Stabilization Fund (SF) and Nigeria Infrastructure Fund (NIF) witnessed 1.60 per cent and N4.64 per cent growth to hit the N278.827 billion and N962.778 billion marks respectively.
The financial report also indicated that the Authority recorded remarkable strides in its domestic infrastructure projects delivery covering roads, agriculture, healthcare, technology, gas industrialization, among others.
Particularly backing up his assurance of the December 2022 commissioning date for the Second Niger Bridge, the NSIA Chief Executive said as one of the three key road projects under the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF), the bridge currently stands at 82 per cent completed and with the ongoing rate of work, the targetted date would be met.
The two other toll roads covered under the PIDF are Lagos-Ibadan Expressway which is now at 77 per cent completion and the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Highway currently at 27 per cent completion. The target completion date for Lagos-Ibadan is also put at December 2022 while 2025 has been set as the target date for the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano highway given the scope of the work.
In the Healthcare sector, Mr Orji said the healthcare companies, LUTH Cancer Centre; NSIA-Kano Diagnostic Centre, and NSIA-Umuahia Diagnostic Centre, became self- sustaining in 2021 post commencement of operations in previous years, while the Authority commenced the development of an Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient Manufacturing Plant (during the year under review); as well as commencing the development, construction and operationalization of 23 new modern medical diagnostic centers of excellence across all six (6) geopolitical zones in the country, two (2) Oncology centres in Enugu and Kaduna states and six (6) Cath Labs
Under its Presidential Fertilizer Initiative (PFI), the NSIA boss said the Authority produced over 12 million 50kg bags of NPK 20:10:10 equivalent in 2020, raising its cumulative production the input since inception to over 30 million 50kg bags equivalent.
He said with the participating blending plants rising from less than seven at inception in 2017 to the current figure of increasing to 44, NSIA was able to deliver over 19 million bags of fertilizer to farmers at 40 per cent below market prices.
This is as the number of local blending plants that participated in the PFI programme also rose from 11 at the end of 2017, being the first year of the programme to about 51 plants
On the technology front, Mr Orji said in line with its Technology Fund’s objective, NSIA successfully invested in a hyper-scale cloud data company – Kasi Cloud Limited with over $12 million investment in early-stage as the venture capital fund managers also turned their focus on the African technology space
Also highlighting Financial Markets Infrastructure, the NSIA Chief Executive said the share of profit of investment accounted for using the equity method increased by 87 per cent from N2.2 billion in 2020 to N4.0 billion in 2021 due to increased profitability of the Group’s Associate/ JV companies – Infracredit Family Homes Funds and Nigeria Mortgage Refinance Company
According to him, going forward, the “2022 financial performance of the NSIA will be impacted by developments in the global and local environment given its exposure across the three (3) funds”
However, he said the Authority will take steps to strengthen the resilience of its strategy through diversification, portfolio selection, and other options to enhance the risk/ return profile and liquidity
Further projecting into the future, Orji said Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) and assets transfer will be critical to the overall long term strategy of the NSIA to expand access to the third-party capital and support the global effort toward building a climate-resilient economy
