The Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority recorded a five per cent growth in total assets from N617.7bn in 2018 to N649.84bn as at the end of 2019. It also recorded a profit after tax of N34.46bn for the 2019 financial period.
The figures are contained in the 2019 audited financial statement of the agency, which was released on Friday in Abuja. The Authority also said it recorded total comprehensive income of N36.15bn in 2019 as against N44.34bn recorded in 2018.
Excluding foreign exchange gain of N18bn in 2018 and N1.28 in 2019, the net income in 2019 was N34.87bn compared to N26.28bn in 2018. Also, it closed key transactions and increased capital deployment on domestic infrastructure projects specifically in agriculture, healthcare, and infrastructure enabling financial institutions. In the healthcare sector, the NSIA said it operationalized the Cancer Centre at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital in May 2019. The Authority also said it recorded significant progress on the civil and construction works at the Advanced Diagnostic Centres at both the Federal Medical Centre Umuahia and Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital. These construction works, it said, were subsequently completed in 2020.
On the presidential fertiliser initiative, the NSIA said it delivered 6.5 million bags of 50kg bags of NPK 20:10:10 while accredited participating blending plants increased from 18 to 31 in 2019.
For the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund, the Authority said it received N90bn from government and deployed capital across three of the major road projects under the PIDF. The three major road projects are the Second Niger Bridge, Lagos – Ibadan Expressway and Abuja-Zaria-Kaduna-Kano Road. As of the end of 2019, it said a total of ₦181.9bn had been deployed across all the three projects. Speaking on the financial performance, the Managing Director, NSIA, Mr Uche Orji, said that the outlook for the Fund remains promising. He said, “The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has caused an unprecedented human and health crisis with significant impact on global markets. As such, it may be difficult to predict the markets overall reaction to development.
“It is predictable that the volatility introduce by the onset of the pandemic may linger. However, the Authority continues to monitor the market conditions with the view to leverage the upside risks that avail themselves in the market.
“We expect that our investment strategy will continue to deliver positive returns in the long term in 2020 as the markets normalize and new opportunities emerge.” The NSIA boss said asset allocation strategy remains stable across the various funds adding that future generations fund remains 25 per cent public equity, 25 per cent private equity, 25 per cent absolute returns and 25 per cent other diversifiers.