NIGERIA’S SOVEREIGN FUND TO PIVOT TO ASSET MANAGEMENT, CEO SAYS

RABAT - Nigeria’s Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) is seek ing to take over under performing government assets, including a power plant, as it transitions into an asset management firm, CEO Uche Orji has said.

“We are looking at many industrial projects and gov ernment-owned enterprises that are either moribund or not performing sub-opti mally,” Orji said on the side lines of the launch of Africa Sovereign Investors Forum (ASIF) by nine funds.

NSIA’s growth strategy was to take these assets and revitalise them, he said.

Orji cited “advanced dis cussions” with the govern ment to take over a power plant that was 85 percent complete “but required a bit of capital to finish it.”

Orji noted that import ed inflationary pressures and the Covid-19 pandemic meant that the government would have to allocate sig nificant resources to social spending that may affect capital increases for the fund.

He said “2022 will be very challenging... Equities are down but hedge funds are up.”

NSIA had “a lot of cash” to take advantage of the oppor tunities that existed in the equity market, he said. “But we will wait for it to bottom first.”

The market was still fraught with downside risk because the battle against inflation had “just begun,” he said.

To help curb inflation, NSIA invested in soil nutri ent supply to increase ag ricultural output and help lower prices.

It has maintained potash imports from Russia and partnered with Morocco’s phosphates and soil nutri ent producer OCP to build a $1.3 billion ammonia and fertiliser plant.

“We are now in the pro cess of selecting engineer ing, procurement and con struction companies” for the plant that would be ready in three years, he said.

Morocco and Nigeria in 2016 also announced their ambition to build an on shore offshore gas pipeline.

“We are waiting for devel opers of that project to show us the terms and we will consider making an invest ment,” he said.