National Telescope national telescope newspaper
Olatunde Oluwasola
Aminu Umar-Sadiq, managing director of the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), says the agency has invested over $500 million in domestic infrastructure.
Umar-Sadiq spoke during an investigative hearing by the house of representatives ad hoc committee on ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), in Abuja on Tuesday.
The managing director said about $1 billion was invested in what is called “third-party investment”.
Umar-Sadiq also said the NSIA has carried out an infrastructure investment portfolio in agriculture, healthcare, and power; while developing over 10 institutions and platforms to improve the financial market ecosystem.
“The agency has developed a 10 million solar panel project with over 500 jobs to be created, 13,504 affordable housing units under construction, and support over 236,000 farmers among others,” he said.
Umar-Sadiq said the agency’s net assets have grown from N156 billion in 2013 to N1.01 trillion at the end of 2022.
He added that NSIA has remained profitable over the last 10 years of operation, with yearly audits performed by independent auditors.
“Also speaking at the hearing, Lateef Shittu, representative director-general of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), said since the states were satisfied with the operations of the NSIA, the local government cannot claim not to be aware of projects being carried out by the agency.
According to Shittu, the states are real owners of the NSIA since they control over 54 percent of the shares of the agency alongside the local government.
“The states and local governments are the real owners only of NSIA because we are the majority shareholders,” he said.
Shittu said in 2022, the governors requested a presentation on the operations of the NSIA from the management, adding that they were “satisfied with the presentation and what was being done”.
On his part, Ademorin Kuye, chairman of the committee, said the objective of the investigation was to ensure that the statutory provisions of the law establishing the authority were adhered to.
He said the house wants to be able to have answers to questions from Nigerians on how the funds of the agency were being managed.
The lawmaker said, if the need arises, they would visit sites of projects being handled by the authority to ensure value for money.
The committee also commended management and staff for the detailed responses they provided, which, according to the lawmakers, shows a high level of governance and transparency.
