The Nigeria Sovereign Investment Agency (NSIA) has launched its maiden Development Impact Report, just as it signed a memorandum of understanding with the National Council on Climate highlighting the urgency for immediate and ambitious action to address climate risks.
The new report, which captures the development impact of NSIA’s operations and investments since inception, shows that the agency delivered impactful initiatives that were consistent with the target outcomes for 15 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The Authority, which is the manager of Nigeria’s sovereign wealth fund, said the MoU with the Council, which is Nigeria’s implementing entity for climate action, would enable the attainment of the shared objectives.
Also, the MD/CEO of the NSIA, Aminu Umar-Sadiq, said the MoU would also allow both parties to further explore potential areas of collaboration, including the development of a climate change framework to provide guidelines for regulating emissions in Nigeria.
He said the MoU would ensure the implementation of a carbon emissions trading mechanism in Nigeria, the management of a national carbon registry as well as a Climate Change Fund.
The Development Impact Report, the MD said, outlines the progress made toward the attainment of the Authority’s developmental and socio-economic impact as of 2021.
Umar-Sadiq said a core pillar of NSIA’s Environmental, Social and Governance strategy was to actively build strategic partnerships with relevant organizations to support climate change actions and Nigeria’s energy transition ambitions of achieving net zero emissions by 2060.
“The agreement with our partner, NCCC is one of the strategic steps we are taking to meet our social impact goals and sustainability Commitments,” the MD said.
The Report highlighted the Authority’s development agenda and overall impact over several years of operations as well as its efforts to safeguard the
environment and address relevant climate-related risks and opportunities in line with best practices.
In his remarks, the Director General of the National Council on Climate Change (NCCC), Salisu Dahiru, acknowledged the partnership as a bold signal to the global audience that the Nigerian government was serious about its climate commitments.
By committing resources from its sovereign wealth fund to support climate action and inclusive green economic growth, Dahiru said Nigeria was investing in its future, especially in a vastly decarbonizing world.
He said the partnership between two of Nigeria’s flagship institutions was expected to catalyze private finance to accelerate Nigeria’s ambitious climate and national development agenda.
The DG commended the transformational leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari by demonstrating executive ownership of Nigeria’s climate policies through the Climate Change Act of 2021, the establishment of the National Council on Climate Change and the commitment toward a net zero economy by 2060.
He called on Nigerians to embrace the opportunities offered by climate change to build a resilient economy and improve the adaptive capacities of the communities to extreme weather events, now and in the future.
Speaking further on the rationale for the partnership, Umar-Sadiq said the NSIA has been engaging in discussions with the Council mandated to make policies and decisions on all matters concerning climate change in Nigeria.
The outcome of the series of discussions between the two agencies, he said, has been the identification of possible areas for collaboration, including the development of Nigeria’s climate change framework, including guidelines for the regulation of carbon emissions.
Other areas of collaboration include the development and implementation of a carbon emissions trading mechanism; management of a national carbon registry; development and implementation of climate-sensitive projects across all sectors, and institutionalization of climate change in Nigeria’s development agenda.
Highlights from the NSIA 2021 Impact Report included the creation of over 500,000 direct and indirect jobs through various initiatives and projects; support to over 230,000 farmers through various agri-projects across the country with over 68%
of the primary beneficiaries being women.
The report showed that significant progress was recorded on three high-priority national road projects, which have a combined road length of 515.4km; sustained set standards in oncology (cancer) and diagnostics services in Nigeria through NSIA’s
healthcare interventions through the medical centres of excellence located in Lagos, Kano, and Umuahia.
Also, the report said the two diagnostics centres located in Kano and Umuahia have served nearly 300,000 patients, while the cancer centre in Lagos held over 150,000 chemotherapy sessions to cater to cancer patients.
Besides, the report captured the commencement of fieldwork on the site of 10MW solar farm in Kumbotso, Kano State (now completed in 2023) and sustained trajectory on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
The NSIA, the report noted, maintained gender and ethnic pay equity and achieved growth in female workforce to roughly 36.3% of total full-time employees
across grade levels amongst other achievements.
The report said the NSIA launched the Graduate Analyst Programme to build capabilities within the country in the areas of Asset Management, Infrastructure Project Management, Portfolio Management; Reporting, Finance, Treasury Management and Risk, with a total of 36 Nigerian professionals benefited from the first programme.
