NSIA spends $1.5bn on domestic infrastructure, third party investments

Managing Director, Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority, Aminu Sadiq, Tuesday said the NSIA had invested over $500m in domestic infrastructure and over $1bn in third party investments. He spoke when he appeared before the House of Representatives ad-hoc committee investigating the activities of the NSIA since its inception. He also said the NSIA’s net assets grew […]

Managing Director, Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority, Aminu Sadiq, Tuesday said the NSIA had invested over $500m in domestic infrastructure and over $1bn in third party investments.

He spoke when he appeared before the House of Representatives ad-hoc committee investigating the activities of the NSIA since its inception.

He also said the NSIA’s net assets grew from N156bn in 2013 to N1.017trn in 2022.

He said the NSIA had also carried out a massive infrastructure investment in several critical sectors such as agriculture, healthcare and power.

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Sadiq said the agency also developed over 10 institutions and platforms to improve the nation’s financial market ecosystem. 

Director-General, Nigerian Governors Forum, A. B Okauru, represented by Executive Director, Strategy and Research, Lateef Shittu, said local governments were mere appendage of the states and not a federating unit and could not technically be direct beneficiaries of NSIA funds. 

He was responding to the claim by the president of the Association of Local Government of Nigeria, Kolade David Alabi, that the local government councils were not aware of the activities of the NSIA. 

Okauru said since the states wre satisfied with the operations of the NSIA, the local governments could not claim not to be aware of projects being carried out by the agency. 

According to him, technically, the states are the real owners of the NSIA since they control over 54 percent of the shares of the agency alongside the local governments. 

Earlier, the chairman of the committee,  Ademorin Kuye, had said the investigation was to ensure that NSIA was adhering to statutory provisions of the law establishing it.

He said the House wanted to have answers to questions from Nigerians on how the funds of the agency were being managed.

He said, if need arises, the committee will visit sites of projects being handled by the agency to ensure value for money.