The Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) has recorded a positive returns, with net assets growth to the tune of N919.73 billion in 2021, as against N772.75 billion posted in 2020, representing 19 per cent increase.
Also, the Authority recorded continuous earnings for the 9th year, despite risks across markets last years.
A report released yesterday by Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Uche Orji, showed also that NSIA recorded total comprehensive income of N147.0 billion in 2021, inclusive of forex gains of N45.8 billion in the year under review.
He also revealed that that the authority recorded total operating income – Core income of N100.8 billion in 2021, exclusive of forex gains.
Orji said the NSIA, last year, “delivered a strong performance,” adding that “the results are in line with the Authority’s expectations.”
He said performance of the authority’s developed market investments “were offset by challenges in our emerging market asset allocation, particularly in China equities, which saw significant underperformance by technology company stocks.”
On what to expect this year and in the coming years, he said: “Looking ahead to 2022 and beyond, we believe inflationary pressures will persist for much of this year, affecting the performance of all asset classes.”
He however, said the NSIA remains “committed to strengthening the Authority’s performance by strengthening our risk management teams.”
On the plan, he said: “In addition to expanding our direct investment footprint in innovation and technology in Nigeria, we have also designated ESG as an investment focus area. We will remain unrelenting in our quest to deliver the Authority’s clear 3-fold mandate. I am confident that the actions we are taking will create value for all our stakeholders in the medium to long term.”
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Breaking down the performance, he said in the areas of Nigeria Infrastructure Fund (NIF, the “NSIA reached major milestones across domestic infrastructure projects specifically in motorways, agriculture, healthcare, technology, and gas industrialization among others.
On agriculture, he said 51 blending plants have been included in the programme, starting from 11 in 2017.
“The operating entity of the programme NAIC-NPK (now PFI-NPK) has been divested to the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI) and is being managed by the Authority as a third-party asset. The restructured entity also turned a profit for the first time which is remarkable for what has been perenially a subsidized programme,” he said.
Orji said NSIA expects to commission, mid-to-late 2022, Panda Agric, “an investee company under the NSIA-UFF US$200m Agriculture Fund set up in 2016. Panda farm is engaged in the two-phase development of an animal feed processing business with backward integration through the farming of maize and soybean on about 3,500Ha of land in Nasarawa State.”
On technology, the NSA MD said “in line with the Fund’s objective, it successfully invested in a hyperscale cloud data company – Kasi Cloud Limited.
Kasi Cloud is the next-generation interconnection and data center platform for hyperscale and enterprise cloud solutions. The company focuses on enabling cloud and digital transformation in Africa starting in Lagos, Nigeria. Kasi has commenced the construction of a “Tier IV” data centre worth US$250 million in Lagos.”
He said under its gas industrialization initiative, the NSIA made” significant progress in conceptualizing the development of the Ammonia and Di-Ammonium Phosphate production plants in partnership with OCP. We have secured a site for the plant and studies are on-going including the early stages of selecting an EPC company.”
Orji said NSIA is implementing three road projects under the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF), including the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Second Niger Bridge, and Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Highway, which have reached advanced stages of construction.
“The target completion date for the first two projects is 2022/2023 with 2025 set as the delivery date for the revised scope on Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Highway.,” he said.
On its healthcare intervention, he said pilot healthcare centres continue to deliver value as expected.
“Having operationalized all three centres, over 60,000 patients have received care. Both NSIA-Kano Diagnostic Centre and NSIA-Umuahia Diagnostic Centre have provided services to over 50,000 patients while the Cancer Centre has attended to over 10,000 patients.
The Authority is in the process of developing an Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient Manufacturing Plant (API) Company in Nigeria. NSIA has secured approval and began the development plans for the construction and operationalization of 23 new modern medical diagnostic centers of excellence covering all 6 geopolitical zones in the country, 2 Oncology centres are to be cited in Enugu and Kaduna states, and 6 Cath Lab,” he said.
He said the Future Generations Fund returned 12 per cent in USD terms for 2021, “with Private Equity, Developed Equity, and Hedge funds being the best performers in 2021.
On the Stabilisation Fund, he said HSIA “invested in the United States sovereign debt instruments and Investment Grade Corporate Credit,” revealing that “at the end of December 2021, 21% of the fund was invested in a portfolio of US treasury bonds tracking the Bloomberg Barclays US Treasury bond 1–3-year index.”
The NSIA MD projected that 2022 will be the most challenging investment environment in the last 15 years “as a combined effect of Inflation, Russia-Ukraine and covid related supply chain challenges combine to create a tough environment for most asset classes.”
He promised that NSIA will continue to drive direct investments in its core areas of: healthcare, toll roads, gas industralisation, technology, ESG, Financial markets infrastructure, toll-roads, power and agriculture, while “asset transfers will be an important component of our growth strategy in the medium to long term as we see significant opportunities in power and real estate in the Federal Government portfolio of assets.”
