Lagos – Mr Uche Orji, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) on Wednesday said that the organisation would presently not embark on direct investment in the equities market.
Orji who stated this during a courtesy visit to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) in Lagos said that direct investment in the stock market was not within its mandate.
He explained that NSIA had three mandates which included management of future generations, Nigeria infrastructure, and the stabilisation funds.
According to him, the future generations fund is meant to preserve and grow the value of assets transferred into it by investing in a diversified portfolio of appropriate growth investments.
Orji stated that Nigeria infrastructure fund was aimed at investing in domestic infrastructure projects that meet targeted financial returns and contribute to the development of essential infrastructure to stimulate economic growth.
He said “the stabilisation fund acts as a buffer against short-term macro-economic instability’’.
“NSIA now has assets under management of about 1.8 billion dollars, comprising the seed capital of 1.25 billion dollars and about 550 million dollars that it manages for third party,” he said.
He stated that NSIA investment focus in the past was outside the country, noting “time has come to invest in domestic market, but not the stock market for now.”
“We have five areas of immediate focus for infrastructure which are healthcare, agriculture, tolled roads, power and real estate.
“Our mandate is to manage the three funds by investing mostly in infrastructure.
“But we are hoping that some of that investments we made in private equities will lift such companies and they will list on the Nigerian Stock Exchange(NSE).”
Orji said that the authority would likely raise bond in the market through its infrastructure programme development.
“We will be raising bonds and that brings us into the market.
“We also hope that as we create other co-investment vehicles, those vehicles will attract people to bring money on the platforms we are creating to invest in Nigeria,” he added.
This, according to him, will create liquidity that will help the stock market.
According to him, agriculture is the centre piece of most of its investments in 2016, as the company co-sponsored the first agriculture financing in Nigeria. (NAN)