NSIA grows net income by 24% as sovereign wealth savings hit $1.75bn

The Nigeria Sovereign Wealth Authority (NSIA) has announced that it recorded a net income of N34.87 billion in 2019, up from the N26.28 billion reported in 2018.

Addressing journalists on Friday, Uche Orji (pictured), NSIA managing director, said the diversified asset strategy adopted by the authority and the accommodative
interest rate environment helped to ensure that almost all the investments made in equities, hedge funds and private equity outperformed.

The sovereign wealth manager explained that the total comprehensive income in 2019 was N36.15 billion, down from N44.34 billion adding that it recorded a five percent growth in total assets to N649.84 billion from N617.70 billion the previous year.

Stella Ojekwe-Onyejeli, the chief operating officer, said the difference was due to foreign exchange gain which was N18 billion in 2018 and N1.28 billion in 2019.

“The foreign exchange gains arose in 2018 due to changes in the currency translation rate from N305/US$ to N325/US$ as approved by the government,” she said.

The management said it maintained the asset allocation strategy across the various funds with the future generations fund remaining 25 percent public equities, 25 percent private equity, 25 percent absolute returns and 25 percent other diversifiers.

“Interest income, a key component of total income, earned in 2019 was N27.02 billion, representing a 13 percent increase over the N23.82 billion recorded in 2018,” it said.

“This underscores NSIA’s strategy to generate fixed income returns from securities that generate predictable interest, and steady returns including Eurobonds, treasury bills and other secured deposits.

“Operating expenses rose to N4.2 billion in 2019 up from N3.8 billion in 2018.”

Orji said the federal government has invested $1.75 billion since it began operations in 2012 and this includes the recently approved $250 million from the federal executive council.

The investment would drop to $1.6 billion after the federal government draws the $150 million approved by President Muhammadu Buhari to augment federation accounts allocation committee (FAAC) disbursement to the three tiers of government.