The Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) has reported a total of N390.7billion profit before tax between 2016 and 2020 as stated in its audited financial statement obtained by Nigerian NewsDirect.
The investment authority, thus, reported 351 per cent increase profit before tax to N156.48billion in 2020 financial year, an increase of N34.67billion reported in 2019.
Other highlights of NSIA’s activities and performance during the period showed that the Authority recorded 343 per cent growth in Total operating Income to N160.06billion in 2020 as against N36.15billion in 2019, and also reported excluding devaluation gain of N51billion, core income of N109billion was recorded in 2020 compared to N33.07billion in 2019.
The group also grew its total assets by 39.1 per cent to N903.72billion in 2020 from N649.85billion reported in 2019, while total equity closed 2020 at N772.75billion in 2020, 33.3 per cent increase over N579.5billion reported in 2019.
The Authority which manages the Nigeria’s sovereign wealth fund in a presentation, said the growth in assets reflects a strong financial performance and consistent implementation of strategic infrastructure investment programmes for the year.
Despite the challenges of COVID-19, the NSIA said it had a strong year owing to strong performance from its investments in international capital markets, improved contribution from subsidiaries and affiliates and exchange gain from foreign currency positions.
The NSIA also received additional contribution of $250million; and provided first stabilization support to the Federal Government where $150million was withdrawn from Stabilisation Fund.
The Managing Director, NSIA, Mr Uche Orji in a virtual media presentation expressed that the authority investment in various private equity and venture capital investment funds are tapped into the high-growth sectors.
Speaking on gas industrialisation, he said significant progress had been made on developing the Ammonia and Diammonium phosphate production plants in partnership with OCP.
According to him, the authority also received $311 million 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.
He said, “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.
In agriculture, through the Presidential Fertiliser Initiative (PFI), it produced 12 million 50 kilogram bags of NPK 20:10:10 equivalent in 2020.
This, he said, brought the total production since inception to over 30 million 50kg bags equivalent, while the number of participating blending plants increased to 44 from less than seven at inception.
Orji added that the NSIA completed construction of 3000 hectares Panda Agric Farm in Nasarawa, the first project of the UFF-NSIA partnership.
He said that the NSIA launched Nigeria’s Innovation Fund to address investment opportunities within Nigeria in Information technology.
According to him, with immediate pipeline it includes data networking, datacentres, software and services as well as Agri-tech and Bio-tech.
For 2021, he said, “Although NSIA believes the market is unlikely to repeat some of the performance of 2020, it is more likely that a broader market recovery will occur with economies opening unlike the case in 2020 in which technology stocks drove market performance.
“In the Future Generations Fund, we expect to allocate more capital to venture capital, global equity markets and an increasing exposure to European equities where we had been under exposed in 2020.
“NSIA believes that broad opening of the markets will provide a comprehensive lift to equities. NSIA expects to complete concession, capital raise and operationalization of the three PIDF road projects: Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Second Niger Bridge and Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Highway.
“The Authority anticipates breaking ground on the Ammonia and Diammonium Phosphate Plant joint venture with OCP.
“In the Nigeria Infrastructure Fund, the Innovation Fund is expected to be very active as we see opportunities in datacenters, data networking, software, pharmaceutical manufacturing, and many others.
“Despite concerns around new waves of Covid-19, the Authority remains confident that with widespread vaccination programs, global economies will continue to reopen and create more opportunities to create value by the NSIA.”