By Moses Okorie
365Daily – The Managing Director of the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), Mr. Uche Orji, has disclosed that his agency achieved a 343 percent growth in 2020, despite the impact of Coronavirus pandemic.
Speaking in a virtual media conference on Tuesday, May 11, 2021, in Abuja, he said despite the lockdown, the agency recorded N160.06 billion in total comprehensive income amounting to 343 per cent growth, compared to N36.15 billion in 2019.
The NSIA boss, who was presenting the 2020 Audited Financial Statements and Performance Review, attributed the growth to a strong performance from its investments in international capital markets, improved contribution from subsidiaries and affiliates and exchange gain from foreign currency positions.
He added that the authority achieved 33 per cent growth in Net Assets amounting to N772.75 billion, as against N579.54 billion in the previous year.
Orji also said that the NSIA received additional contribution of 250 million dollars and provided first stabilisation support of 150 million dollars from the Stabilisation Fund to the Federal Government.
According to him, the authority also received 311 million dollars from funds recovered from late General Sani Abacha from the US Department of Justice and Island of Jersey.
He said that the funds were deployed towards the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF) projects of Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Highway, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and the Second Niger Bridge.
“The 2020 fiscal year was characterised by high volatility and global market uncertainty on account of COVID-19 in the first half.
“However, the authority’s strategic investments generated respectable returns in spite of the impact of COVID-19.
“Notably, NSIA has invested in various private equity and venture capital investment funds to tap into the high-growth sectors.
“NSIA expects that the outlook for 2021 would be positive, however we expect bouts of volatility as global markets adjust and recover from the impact of the pandemic.”
Speaking on some of the projects and interventions the organisation was involved in, he said that it entered a strategic collaboration with BBVGH for cancer treatments.
Orji said that the group was helping in training personnel and bringing in lower costs cancer medicine for those who were in the NSIA-Lagos University Teaching Hospital Cancer Centre.
He also said it had operationalised the NSIA-Kano Diagnostic Centre and the NSIA-Umuahia Diagnostic Centre which were developed as first-rate diagnostic centres with individual investments of 5.5 million dollars each.
For the power sector, Orji said that the NSIA was building a 10 megawatts solar power plant in Kano, which presently was the single largest in Nigeria.
“Expected to be completed at the end of 2022 at a cost of about 15 million dollars, the plant would link industrial customers to an additional source of power supply,” he said.
He said it was also setting up a platform with international Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) to allow it spread across various parts of the country.