Minister of finance and coordinating minister of the economy, Wale Edun, has inaugurated the board of directors of the Ministry of Finance Incorporated,.
This is contained in a statemnt issued by the ministry yesterday. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu approved the membership of the board last month.
Edun said the mandate of the directors as holders and husbandry of Nigerian assets is to optimise those assets and do the best they can firstly to enumerate the assets, “so that we are sure of what Nigeria owns, physical and other assets that have been built up over time and also to maximise returns on those assets. These are what the country owns apart from what it earns from export revenue, oil revenue and other government revenues. These assets can also earn returns on investments to add to the budget and foreign exchange reserve under the care of the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI).’’
While responding to a question on how to meet up with the N100 trillion Naira target in the nation’s economy, Edun explained that the figure should be interrogated with rigorous and robust analysis to ascertain the evaluation of the assets owned by Nigeria, adding that the figures are even more bigger than the current estimate, not to talk of the fact that we should comfortably reach N100 trillion in the next decade in the value of those assets.
The minister highlighted the priority areas of MOFI to include: diversifying MOFI’s investments across different industries, sectors and asset classes as well as making the company more resilient, leveraging technology, artificial intelligence, improve portfolio monitoring, risk management, transparency, diligent oversight to maximise returns on investments.
Edun said there is a need for MOFI to collaborate and cooperate with other national and World funds bodies so as to function more effectively, adding that he was confident in their ability to deliver.
Chairman of the board Dr Shamsudeen Usman said his team is aware of the huge expectations on them. He pledged that they would do their very best not just to the current administration but to the country as a whole.
Dr. Usman said, “We will do our work with the greatest level of transparency, firstly the enumeration and maximisation of value because we are expected to actually extract as much value from those assets as possible for Nigerians, issues of diversification and leveraging technology, diligent oversight as well as productivity. We will set up the highest level of corporate governance, so that we become an example to other companies we are managing.”
Usman pledged their commitment to make significant contributions to the board.
