Uche Usim, Abuja
The Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) got a liquidity boost of $311 million from the Abacha loot recently handed over to the federal government from the US and other nations.
The fresh capital injection is to help the authority meet some of its funding needs.
The Managing Director of NSIA, Mr. Uche Orji, who made the disclosure at a virtual meeting to unveil its 2019 operations report, said that the $311 million was facilitated by the legal unit of the Authority and currently domiciled in a special account at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
According to him, the money will be channeled into Lagos-Ibadan expressway, second Niger bridge and other key projects from the third quarter of this year.
Orji, while hailing the government for the capital injection, said it has foreclosed any reasons to storm the capital in seeking funds.
The NSIA boss also said it closed key transactions and increased capital deployment on domestic infrastructure projects specifically in agriculture, healthcare, and infrastructure enabling financial institutions.
Specifically, Orji revealed that it operationalized the Cancer Centre at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital in May 2019.
He added that significant progress was recorded 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, he said, were eventually completed this year.
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.
As regards the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund, the Authority said it received N90 billion from the 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 ₦181.9billion had been deployed across all the three projects.
On COVID-19 and its effects, 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 introduced 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.
“The NSIA expects that our investment strategy will continue to deliver positive returns in the long term in 2020 as the markets normalize and new opportunities emerge.”