The House of Representatives Committee on Finance has committed to supporting the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI) in fully establishing and recovering all federal government assets and investments.
The committee’s chairman, Hon. James Faleke, gave the assurance on Thursday during an oversight visit to MOFI’s headquarters in Abuja.
Faleke lauded the management team led by the managing director, Dr Armstrong Takang, for starting on a sound footing and commended former President Muhammadu Buhari for resuscitating MOFI, which he said had been comatose since its establishment in 1959.
“MOFI came into existence in 1959 and has been dormant until the President Buhari administration brought it up and reorganised it to make it more viable. MOFI holds all our assets in all the corporations and government agencies. So, setting up a management team to harness the country’s resources was a great idea, and we, as a committee and, indeed, the House of Representatives, would give it all the support it needs to flourish.
“So, we came today and have given them time to consolidate. This is our first visit, and everything is going well on average. Today, we made some observations and guided them in some areas, and we believe they have taken note of those concerns, and all will be well,” he said.
Earlier, the managing director, Takang, told the lawmakers that MOFI never operated as a management and active entity and was domiciled in the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation before the restructuring.
He said the agency was also working with the government to mobilise investments in other sectors of the economy, such as housing and technology.
“So, the administration of President Buhari decided that it was important to have finance management reforms to move MOFI from just being a shelf entity to becoming an operating entity effectively as a private entity firm owned by the federal government, the same way that Singapore did in 1974.
“As for us to restructure our economy, we must emphasise our investments and assets to see how they can contribute to our economy, and that was the basis upon which MOFI was restructured last year.
“Part of the reform includes the changing of the governance structure where there is a Governing Council that the president chairs and has some ministers as members and three individuals and there is a board of directors that is chaired by Dr Shamsudeen Usman, former minister of finance and five other independent members. There are also four of us in the Executive Management Team on board, and of course, there is the management team that I lead.
“What we have done is to ensure that MOFI is established to have a governance structure to interface with the portfolio companies and provide needed support. And our board was established, and we have been through many policies- portfolio governance, investment policies, human resource policies, etc,” Takang added.
