10th February, 2014
Nigeria’s Federal Government said on Monday that it has added $550m to the country’s sovereign wealth funds managed by the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA).
This represents an increase of over 50% to the $1 billion funding which the NSIA got at inception.
The Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala made the announcement at a media briefing in Abuja. Mr Uche Orji, MD/CEO of NSIA also spoke at the event.
“This is evidence that the investment which the country is making in the NSIA is increasing and the benefits of this investment will bear good fruit for the country. There is still work to be done but we are on the right track”, said the Minister.
The finance minister said the additional funds were derived from the $1 billion Eurobond which the country successfully floated last year, proceeds of which were set aside for financing power infrastructure.
According to her, $200 million out of the $550m for the NSIA will go into the Infrastructural Fund of the NSIA to finance gas to power investments with the private sector.
This is with the ultimate objective of generating catalystic funding for gas to power infrastructure to boost the development of the power sector and improvement of power supply.
She also revealed that an agreement has been reached that the private sector partners will contribute an additional two dollars for every dollar invested by NSIA.
With this, the $200 million is expected to generate at least $400 million more in additional investment capital.
The balance of $350 million will go into a liquidity facility which the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Company (NBET) will manage on behalf of the Federal Government to boost investors’ confidence in the power sector reforms.
The NSIA CEO gave an overview of the investment initiatives of NSIA in Power, Healthcare, Transportation, Real Estate and Mortgage Finance.
He added that the NSIA is determined to do justice to its mandate by investing well and making good returns to the country.