Despite uncertainties in the global investment space and sundry fiscal constraints in the domestic environment, the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) has reported N153.56bn profit in the 2021 financial year.
Despite the increasingly volatile global investment climate, the NSIA which was set up by the Federal Government in 2012 to manage Nigeria’s Sovereign Wealth Fund, has for nine successive years been recording positive financial results based on strategic investment drives of its board and management.
An analysis of the financial performance of the Authority during the year in review showed that its core income grew to N100.8bn in 2021, from the N109.6bn recorded in the preceding year while its foreign exchange gains stood at N45.8bn in 2021 compared to the N51.2bn in 2020. Analysts attributed the marginal drop in forex gains in 2021 to the increasing volatility of the nation’s forex market
Also, the NSIA recorded marginal decline of 8.17 per cent in Total Comprehensive Income from N160.06bn in 2020 to N146.98b in 2021.
A proof of the Authority’s managerial resilience was demonstrated in the huge accretion in its net assets, which grew to N919.73bn in 2021, representing 19.02 percent growth the assets’ value of N772.75bn recorded in the preceding year.
Similarly, the NSIA’s funds also performed well on an individual basis with the Future Generation Fund (FGF) growing to N976.868bn in the financial year under review, indicating 11.98 percent increase over the 2020 figures just as the Stabilization Fund (SF) grew to N278.827bn or 1.60 percent higher than the 2020 value.
Also, the Nigeria Infrastructure Fund (NIF) grew to N962.778bn in the 2021 financial year, representing 4.64 percent surge over the value reported in the preceding financial year.
The hedge funds composite returned 12.75 percent for the year with eturns ranging from -6.51 per cent (Palestra Capital) to 26.18 per cent (Naya fund).
According to the Authority’s latest financial report, the management also achieved remarkable strides in the Authority’s domestic infrastructure projects, particularly on motorways, agriculture, healthcare, technology, gas industrialization, among other projects.
For instance, under its Presidential Fertilizer Initiative (PFI), the Authority produced over 12 million 50kg bags of NPK 20:10:10 equivalent in 2020, raising its cumulative production the input since inception to over 30 million 50kg bags equivalent.
With the participating blending plants increasing to 44 from less than seven at inception in 2017, the Authority also delivered over 19 million bags of fertilizer to farmers at 40 percent below market prices, while the number of local blending plants that participated in the PFI programme increased from 11 at the end of 2017, which is the first year of the programme to 51.
On investments in technology, the Authority, in line with its Technology Fund’s objective, successfully invested in a hyperscale cloud data company – Kasi Cloud Limited. This is even at it had invested about $12m in early stage, venture capital fund managers focused on the African technology space
A further analysis of the Authority’s investment in hydrocarbon resources industry showed that its Gas Industrialization initiative, the Authority also made significant progress on developing the Ammonia and Di-Ammonium Phosphate production plants in partnership with OCP.
According to the statement, three road projects being implemented by the NSIA under the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF), which are the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Second Niger Bridge and Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Highway have reached 66 per cent, 53 per cent and 66 per cent completion, respectively.
The target completion date for the first two projects is 2022 while 2025 has been set as the target date for the original scope on Abuja-Kaduna-Kano highway.
Investment experts believed that the NSIA’s management was able to achieve these positive trajectories across the Authority’s operational areas with the attendant positive implications for Nigeria’s sustainable development through proactive investment strategies and therefore should be commended.
