TheCable

Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), the agency saddled with the mandate of managing the country’s sovereign wealth fund, says it will sell Sukuk bond to fund some road projects this year.

Uche Orji, chief executive officer of NSIA, disclosed this during an online conference on Tuesday.

Sukuk is a form of Islamic banking that comply with Sharia by paying profit — not interest — generally by involving a tangible asset such as land in the investment.

Orji said the NSIA also plans to inject $50 million equity into an innovation fund that develops technology infrastructure in the country, most especially in data centres, data networking, software, pharmaceutical manufacturing, and many others.

“I believe we will be coming into the market this year most likely, we will be coming via the Sukuk programme, which is something to note for the road projects.”

Orji, however, did not disclose the amount the NSIA is planning to raise via Sukuk.

He said there are plans to allocate more of its future generations fund to venture capital, global equity markets and stocks in Europe where its exposure has been relatively low.

“We believe the general opening of the market will be positive for Europe.”

Financial results for 2020 full-year show that the investment institution grew income from N36.15 billion in 2019 to N160.06 billion in 2020 — representing a 343 percent growth in total comprehensive income.

The surge in income rode on the back of strong investment gains in international capital markets, improved contribution from subsidiaries and exchange gain from foreign currency positions.

The Authority currently has three Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF) road projects: Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Second Niger Bridge and Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Highway.