NSIA, InfraCo Will Enhance Nigeria’s Infrastructure

The Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority has said it will collaborate with the newly-established Infrastructure Company to help the company achieve optimal result from its mandate.

President Muhammadu Buhari had recently approved the establishment of Infra-Co, a Public Private Partnership-styled infrastructure company with an initial seed capital of N1trn to help address Nigeria’s huge infrastructure deficit.

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Speaking at the weekend on the sidelines of a seminar for journalists, organised by THE WHISTLER Newspaper, the Head of Corporate Communications, NSIA, Mr. Titilope Olubiyi, said that at the appropriate time, the agency would partner and provide its expert advice to Infra-Co to enable it succeed. 

The seminar entitled: “COVID-19 and Journalist: Effective Reporting of the NNPC, PenCom and NSIA”, had the Senior Lecturer, Mass Communication Department, University of Lagos, Dr Tayo Popoola; and a former Correspondent at Bloomberg, Mr. Vincent Nwanma, as facilitators. 

Olubiyi said, “If you look at all the announcements that were made, our Managing Director will serve on the board of InfraCo. So, we expect that there will be times where NSIA will partner with InfraCo and perhaps at other times, as the opportunity presents itself, we expect that we will probably advise on projects because we have been in the infrastructure space for quite some time. 

“We, are delighted with the development. Indeed, we were part of the process leading up to the announcement.”

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He explained that the Authority has three core mandate funds including the Stabilisation Fund, which essentially helps the country to stabilise its economy in times of financial crisis. 

He said the first call on that stabilisation fund happened last year when the federal government withdrew $150m to help stabilise the economy that was heavily hit by the negative impact of COVID-19. 

Olubiyi also said that the second mandate of the fund was the Future Generations Fund, a transgenerational wealth management mechanism where the agency manages funds for the benefit of future generations of Nigeria by investing in various assets.

He added that the third mandate was the Nigeria Infrastructure Fund which essentially caters to the present need of Nigerians in terms of infrastructure development. 

Olubiyi further explained that, under the Nigeria Infrastructure Fund, the NSIA currently has five sector focus areas.

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They are Motorways where it invests in road projects to address issues around transportation and roads, as well as Healthcare, Power, Agriculture and Financial Market Infrastructure. 

He said the NSIA, however, has 16 other areas of interest such as Education where it invested in Bridge Academies to bring high quality education to children of the less privilegded using a harmonised curriculum, among others. 

Meanwhile, the facilitators at the seminar advised business and energy journalists covering the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Pensions Commission and the NSIA to up their game by engaging in thorough research of the agencies and adoption of emerging technologies to help them effectively report them. 

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