By Bassey Udo
The Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) says it recorded a defining landmark in its performance during the outgoing year, as it surpassed the $3bn mark in net assets for the first time in June.
The sovereign wealth agency said the net assets increased from the initial $1bn at inception to $3.10 bn by June 2025, representing a resilient Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 9.9% across multiple economic cycles.
These details were disclosed in its operational review report titled: “2025 in Review – A Year of Purpose, Progress and Possibilities”.
Describing 2025 as its defining year, the NSIA said the landmark achievement was supported by the federal government’s contributions and retained earnings from its business operations.
The NSIA, which was established to invest surplus oil revenue for long-term national development, is owned by the three tiers of government, namely federal government 46.4%; states 34.9%; local government 18.2%, and the Federal capital territory 0.5%.
More than a decade since its establishment, the Authority said it has continued to evolve from a stabilisation vehicle and long-term savings institution into a national systems builder that blends financial discipline with a wider ambition to solve structural challenges that limit economic opportunity for millions of Nigerians.
Details of the performance review showed that the Authority recorded a 6% growth year-on-year in its Core Total Comprehensive Income (TCI), which rose to ₦202.10 bn in the first half of 2025.
Apart from attaining a 100% rating on the Global SWF Governance, Sustainability & Resilience Index, the Authority said it has sustained its 9/10 score on the
Linaburg-Maduell Transparency Index, reinforcing its position as a benchmark for accountability, responsible investing, and institutional integrity.
“Through a portfolio of transformative initiatives across multiple sectors, NSIA under the visionary leadership of Aminu Umar-Sadiq, MD & CEO, continues to demonstrate its commitment to create shared value for present and future generations of Nigerians,” the review noted.
Citing the $28m Impact Innovation Fund established in partnership with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the Authority said it has blended concessional financing with NSIA’s capital to support early-stage startups.
This, it noted, is building technology-driven solutions to social challenges, helping them validate products, expand market reach and scale commercially.
In a country where early-stage financing remains a binding constraint, the Authority said the Fund represents a structural intervention with the potential to redefine Nigeria’s innovation landscape for the next generation.
Also, it said the Fund would further amplify NSIA’s efforts over the past three years to deepen Nigeria’s innovation pipeline, particularly through the NSIA Prize for Innovation (NPI), which has expanded in scale and visibility, with the third edition attracting more than 5,000 applications from young entrepreneurs across the country and awarding over $250,000 to support top innovators.
Besides, it said the prize has become a gateway for promising founders to gain technical exposure, international mentorship, and access to early-stage funding, with its impact now evident not only in the calibre of its winners, many of whom have gone on to raise follow-on capital, but also in the growing confidence fostered in Nigeria’s early-stage innovation ecosystem.
In the healthcare sector, NSIA said it expanded its footprint through a partnership with the Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH), which appointed its healthcare subsidiary, MedServe, as Project Manager for upgrading oncology and nuclear medicine facilities across six tertiary hospitals.
Building on its proven execution capacity, demonstrated through over five years of successful operations of an advanced oncology centre and two diagnostics centres, as well as the ongoing development of ten additional state-of-the-art centres, the NSIA said that of the six FMoH facilities, MedServe successfully commissioned three upgraded oncology centres in 2025.
The facilities are at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), and the Federal Teaching Hospital Katsina (FTHK), all of which have completed physics acceptance testing and full system calibration, with patient treatments already commenced at UNTH and training programmes scheduled to begin at UBTH and FTHK.
These centres, the Authority said, are expected to serve thousands of patients annually and substantially enhance
Nigeria’s capacity to deliver modern, high-quality oncology care and diagnostic services.
Recognising that healthcare transformation requires both cutting-edge infrastructure and skilled human capital, NSIA said it launched a $2 million oncology training programme in July 2024, to train 5002 clinicians nationwide.
To date, it disclosed that over 186 clinicians have already undergone intensive training in oncology,
radiotherapy, oncology nursing, and pathology, with over 10,000 training hours delivered.
By investing simultaneously in people and technology, NSIA said it was laying the foundation for a sustainable, accessible and resilient ecosystem capable of transforming cancer care across Nigeria.
In the energy sector, NSIA said it has advanced critical platforms to enhance energy access, security, and
efficiency across Nigeria.
The Renewable Investment Platform for Limitless Energy (RIPLE), it pointed out, serves as its vehicle for accelerating investments across the renewable energy value chain, from diesel decommissioning projects to PV manufacturing and battery storage technologies, reducing reliance on costly and unreliable generation.
In addition, it said RIPLE builds on NSIA’s successful delivery of the 10MW Kano Solar project, currently reputed to be the largest grid-connected solar plant in the country.
The project is being complemented by the Distributed Renewable Energy (DRE) Fund launched by the NSIA in 2025 in partnership with global institutions such as Africa50, the International Solar Alliance and Sustainable Energy for All.
The DRE Fund, it noted, is designed to unlock private capital for off-grid and mini-grid developers in underserved communities.
Again, the NSIA said it has continued to provide early-stage financing to energy transition projects through the
Construction Finance Warehouse Facility, which together reflect its holistic approach to tackling Nigeria’s longstanding energy deficit, promoting solutions that are cleaner, cheaper, and closer to end users.
In agriculture, the NSIA said that prior to its transition of the management of the Presidential Fertiliser Initiative (PFI) to the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI), it delivered long-term structural gains to the government.
The NSIA recalled that when it assumed PFI management role in 2017, only four fertiliser blending plants were operational nationwide, adding that today more than 80 blending plants were active, generating over 100,000 jobs and producing about 130 million bags of fertiliser over the life of the programme.
The expansion, it said, has not only stabilised prices for smallholder farmers, but also revitalised the moribund fertiliser blending industry in Nigeria.
During the year, it said in close collaboration with MOFI, the formal transition of PFI-NPK Ltd was effected as part of broader sector restructuring, to ensure the programme’s nearly decade-long gains were preserved under a new governance framework.
In the housing sector, the NSIA said, through the Federal Government’s Renewed Hope Cities and Estates Initiative, it supported the development of affordable homes at scale in Kano.
As of the third quarter of 2025, the Authority said the project reached 75% completion and about 8% ahead of its delivery schedule, a rare achievement in large-scale construction.
Beyond delivering impactful projects and developing critical infrastructure, NSIA said it continues to establish structures that address value dislocations, build ecosystems, and deepen financial markets during the year.
Apart from contributing to the ₦100 billion capitalisation and establishment of the National Credit Guarantee Company (NCGC), alongside the Bank of Industry (BOI), MOFI, and the Nigerian Consumer Credit Corporation (CreditCorp), the NSIA said the NCGC provided credit guarantees that reduce lending risk for banks and microfinance institutions, expanding access to finance for millions of households and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) historically excluded from the formal credit system.
In 2017, NSIA said it co-developed InfraCredit, a local currency guarantor that has mobilised over ₦300 billion
till date from the domestic capital markets for infrastructure projects.
In addition, it said recently NSIA launched the Green Guarantee Company (GGC), the world’s first climate-focused guarantor, in partnership with the Green Climate Fund, UK’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and Norwegian Investment Fund for Developing Countries (NorFund).
With a proven record in establishing innovative risk mitigation mechanisms, NSIA said it continues to turn financial barriers into opportunities for growth,
catalysing capital at scale for strategic initiatives, while strengthening its position as a continental thought leader.
During the year, the NSIA said it successfully hosted the fourth Annual Meeting of the Africa Sovereign Investors Forum (ASIF 2025) that brought together African sovereign wealth funds, institutional investors, development finance institutions and multilateral agencies to shape a unified agenda for Africa’s economic transformation.
A major highlight during the Forum, it recalled, was the launch of the ASIF Investment Platform, a transformative vehicle co-stewarded by NSIA and Morocco’s Ithmar Capital, designed to mobilise African and global capital for investments in infrastructure, renewable energy, agriculture and food security.
The platform, the NSIA notes, signalled a new era of African-led investment solutions aimed at boosting job creation, expanding energy access and accelerating sustainable economic growth.
Over the years, NSIA said it delivered not only strong financial performance, but also meaningful development outcomes, creating over 245,000 jobs.
“Taken together, these achievements reflect NSIA’s strategic philosophy that national development requires more than capital – it requires systems that
strengthen healthcare delivery, enhance energy access, accelerate innovation, expand affordable housing, empower small businesses and deepen local capital markets,” it said.
Putting 2025 in context, the NSIA said its work underscores a powerful truth that behind every financial figure lies a human story.
“A patient receiving life-saving cancer treatment, a clinician gaining specialised training, a young founder building a scalable business, a family moving into a dignified new home, a small enterprise accessing credit for the first time.
“These stories illuminate the purpose of NSIA’s mandate and reaffirm the role that disciplined, transparent and forward-thinking sovereign institutions are play in shaping national prosperity,” the NSIA said.
Confident that full-year 2025 would close on a strong note, amid easing recession concerns in the U.S., an improved global trade environment, and expected rate cuts in key markets position, which enabled it to capture meaningful opportunities in the final quarter of the year, the NSIA said it was looking ahead into 2026 from a position of strategic and financial strength – resilient, capable and aligned to Nigeria’s long-term development priorities.
As it continues to blend prudence with ambition, innovation with accountability, and systems thinking with national aspiration, the NSIA said it remained steadfast in its mission to build a more resilient Nigeria and to create lasting prosperity for both present and future
generations.
