TheCable

The ministry of finance incorporated (MOFI), the federal government’s investment vehicle, says it is “resolutely” working toward achieving a N100 trillion assets base in the next 10 years.

Amstrong Takang, managing director, MOFI, spoke at a quarterly meeting held in collaboration with the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) in Abuja, on Thursday. 

He said the organisation aims to achieve the goal by unlocking liquidity from the country’s idle assets.

Takang said MOFI intends to create a national assets register (NAR) — an inventory of all properties 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 maximise the liquidity potential of its asset holdings and resource portfolios.

Takang added that the register would consolidate and document the database of the federal government’s assets currently dispersed among various ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).

“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 for the total value of the country’s investments and assets,” Takang said.

 “MOFI will mobilise, 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 that MOFI is committed to unlocking liquidity from all federal government-owned idle assets. 

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.

On his part, Michael Ohiani, the director-general of ICRC, highlighted the benefits of partnerships and collaborations in the management of government assets. 

He pointed out that since the inception of the commission in 2010, a total of 103 public-private partnership (PPP) projects, valued at about N11 trillion have been approved by the federal executive council (FEC) while projected revenue earnings were put at about N3 trillion.