•Partners NGX on market development, listings
By Chinwendu Obienyi
The Federal Government through the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI) has set its target of Asset Under Management (AuM) growth of N100 trillion on assets and investmentsover the next 10 years.
The Chief Executive Officer, MOFI, Dr Armstrong Takang, disclosed this during a courtesy visit/closing gong ceremony and engagement with capital market stakeholders in Lagos on Monday.
Takang said the Ministry over the last 64 years of its inception has played a passive custodian role, functioning mostly as a registry of Federal Government of Nigeria’s investments and assets.
He noted that over this time, MOFI was not structured with the right governance or resources required for it to deliver on its mandate and stated that there is a need to unlock the value of Nigeria’s public wealth by establishing an institution that focuses on optimisng the value of the FG’s investments and assets.
He revealed that the Ministry is poised to the economic transformation of the country by mobilising, structuring and deploying investment capital in priority sectors of the economy.
He stated that the ministry’s asset classes include; corporate assets, concession assets, energy and extractives, fixed assets, financial and intangible assets.
Outlining the challenges MOFI was set up to address, Takang revealed that there has been lack of transparency on the asset the government owns and there has been no defined performance targets as well as insufficient corporate governance structure. According to him, MOFI’s aspiration is to grow its AuM to a minimum of N100 trillion over the next 10 years and increase the economic impact of MOFI’s portfolio companies by generating a minimum of $10 billion in additional GDP by 2033, through strategic investments and partnerships that drive innovation, productivity, and competitiveness.
Speaking on the partnership with Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX), Takang said, “MOFI will work with the NGX to identify those entities that can be put on a path to listing. This process will enable the companies commence the process of meeting those governance, operating and reporting requirements that would qualify them for a listing.
While listing of MOFI entities will increase the number of entities listed on the NGX, it presents a pathway to achieving one of MOFI’s key mandates of professionalizing Government Owned and Government Linked entities (GOE and GLEs)”.
Responding, the Chief Executive Officer, NGX, Temi Popoola, commended MOFI for its role as the custodian of government investments and assets, emphasizing that NGX is eager to collaborate with MOFI to facilitate capital access for listed entities and contribute to the advancement of Nigeria’s capital market.
Popoola said, “This partnership is an opportunity for the capital market to actively play a key role in growing the economy under President Bola Tinubu’s agenda. This is an exciting time and you may have seen that our local investors really stepped up their participation in the market recently. We think that with a lot of foreign capital, together with the strengthening and enhancements that have been done, that the market is ready to support many initiatives from the government. We really look forward to working together towards the support in developing our markets”.