Nigeria’s premier asset holding and investment management company, Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MFI), says it will collaborate with the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) to develop strategies to unlock the value of the country’s public wealth.
The Managing Director of MOFI, Amstrong Takang, said at the Second quarterly meeting of the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Units Consultative Forum (3PUCF) in Abuja on Thursday that the collaboration would focus on identifying, collating, and organizing information and data on all Federal Government’s investments and assets with a view to optimizing their value.
Takang disclosed that MOFI plans to create a National Assets Register (NAR) – an inventory of all assets and investments owned by the Federal Government in a single window, to enhance strategic oversight and management of the nation’s public wealth.
He said the register would also enhance the Federal Government’s capacity to grow revenue and maximize the liquidity potential of its asset holdings and resource portfolios, while consolidating and documenting the information database of FGN’s assets currently dispersed among various ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs).
Other benefits of the register would include enhancing proper classification and categorization of assets to promote visibility and proper recording; to show true and fair values of assets presented to the public at valuations to attract prospective investors.
Takang said MOFI was ready to transition from being a passive repository and registry of all investments and assets owned by the Federal Government into an active player with the objective of being reformed into a world-class asset and investment management company contributing to the country’s economic transformation.
“It is an irony that successive governments in the country can talk about the country’s total debt portfolio, yet the same cannot be said of the total value of the country’s investments and assets.
The proposed National Assets Registry, he explained, was critical to grow the Nigerian economic, as MOFI would leverage its balance sheet – including newly enumerated assets – to secure funding and guarantees from strategic partners.
“The nation has many assets spread across the country and across the globe with some of them totally abandoned. A National Asset Registry will help us to know what we actually own and how best to put the assets to effective use, in the interest of the Nigerian public.
“Knowing the assets will help us to know which of the assets we can let go; which ones we can keep. There are assets that are yielding zero interests, yet we are borrowing monies at about 9 percent interest rate. Many of our properties abroad have been confiscated, because they are not generating any revenue to even pay for utilities or even security,” the CEO said.
“MOFI will mobilize, structure, and deploy investment capital in priority sectors of the economy on behalf of the Federal Government as well as accurately enumerate and ascertain the value of assets owned by the Federal Government,” he added.
Takang said MOFI was poised to ensure the Federal Government owned assets became visible, while consistently and in a sustainable manner delivering optimal risk-adjusted returns on such investments and assets
Also, he said MOFI was committed to unlocking liquidity from all Federal Government-owned idle assets; mobilize and investing capital in opportunities in strategic sectors of the nation’s economic and social development plans, while partnering with government agencies to leverage the nation’s investments and assets to support efforts to deliver on their socio-economic mandates.
Beyond its pledge to play a more active role in establishing a positive economy in the country, the MD said MOFI would professionalize public wealth management; catalyze growth across industries by bridging the gap between the country’s earning capacity from existing assets and opportunities to reposition investment portfolios for growth.
He said the agency would enable access to capital and performance management by empowering asset custodians with the capacity to make better, safer decisions for more lucrative and impactful results.
Some of the challenges that hindered the effective management of government investment assets, he pointed out, include limited investment amid rising debt profile; lack of transparency in the management of the assets government-owned; absence of defined performance targets, and inadequate governance structure.
Other challenges included foreign exchange instability; low foreign direct investments; a decline in government revenues and poor management of government investments.
To redress these challenges, Takang said MOFI was established to optimize government investment and assets value; take active and structured participation of the government in large-scale projects to prevent liabilities in the government’s financial books.
Under the new MOFI, he said the transition from a “passive custodian’’ to an “active investment manager” would help the agency contribute significantly to the Federal budget and partner more strategically to stimulate investments into critical sectors.
Also, he said the agency would mobilize resources to support long-term investments while implementing a performance management structure for state-owned entities in the portfolio through a greater involvement on the Board of portfolio companies.
MOFI’s goal, he noted, would be to drive optimal returns and become self-sustaining, with a capacity to generate between N24 and N34 trillion in cumulative returns from its portfolio companies by 2032.
Part of MOFI’s strategy towards realizing its core objectives, he pointed out, was to focus on its aspiration to grow the economic impact of its portfolio companies by generating a minimum of $10 billion in the additional gross domestic product (GDP) by 2033, through strategic investments and partnerships that drive
innovation, productivity, and competitiveness.
The agency’s strategy would be focusing on professionalizing state ownership of assets; financing the economy; sourcing funding and investments for government-owned enterprises as well as the advancement of socio-economic objectives.
Earlier, the Director General of ICRC, JAM Ohiani, highlighted the benefits of partnerships and collaborations in the management of government assets, pointing out that since the inception of the Commission in 2010, a total of 103 PPP projects, valued at about N11 trillion have been approved by the Federal Executive Council, while projected revenue earnings was put at about N3trillion.
He said the Commission was committed to continue building PPP capacity across MDAs through collaboration and partnership in the management assets and investment portfolios.
