The Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) has created 245,000 direct jobs across sectors of the economy since its inception 12 years ago, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the agency, Aminu Umar-Sadiq, has said.
Umar-Sadiq, who disclosed this when the House of Representatives Committee on Finance visited the NSIA headquarters on an oversight visit, added that the Authority also supported over 236,000 farmers through its agriculture investments.
He said the agency also served as project managers for the development of a 10MW solar project in Kano State, creating over 500 direct and indirect jobs on the project, as well as delivered three motorway projects with a total length of 515.4km.
Umar-Sadiq said NSIA successfully completed three hospital projects with over 282,100 unique patients attended to and 150,000 chemotherapy sessions achieved.
The Managing Director further added that NSIA has catalysed consequential projects with far-reaching implications across pivotal sectors, including technology.
He also said the Authority has implemented the NSIA Prize for Innovation Programme (NPI) to enable the development of the technology eco-system and reposition Nigerian tech talents for global relevance.
“Following the successful operationalisation of its three demonstration projects: NSIA-LUTH Cancer Centre (NLCC), NSIA-Umuahia Diagnostic Centre (NUDC) and NSIA – Kano Diagnostic Centre (NKDC), NSIA has commenced the healthcare expansion programme which aims to establish 23 modern medical diagnostic centers, 3 additional oncology centers and 7 catheterisation laboratories across the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria.
“The first phase of the programme is currently under way with the construction of ten centres. Also, through its stake in Family Homes Fund, NSIA has significantly improved the quality of life of Nigerians from low-income families through the development of 500,000 affordable homes to low-income families in Nigeria.
“Additionally, NSIA continues to demonstrate its commitment to positive socio-economic outcomes through key platforms like the Nigerian Mortgage Refinance Company (NMRC), through which it improves the liquidity of the mortgage market to further promote affordable housing in Nigeria.
“To revalidate its commitment to climate adaptive solutions, NSIA set up an innovative USD500m Renewable Investment Platform for Limitless Energy (RIPLE) to expand energy access, enhance energy efficiency and ensure energy security in Nigeria. RIPLE’s pilot initiative involves setting up a generation and distribution system to meet 70MW of unsuppressed energy demands in an area covering 9,000 connections,” he said.
Deputy Chairman of the House Committee on Finance, Hon. Saidu Musa Abdullahi (APC, Niger), said the visit was the first by the legislative committee to the agency, stressing that the panel was only interested in fiscal prudence.
He said; “year in, year out, we have always had huge deficits which made financing major projects in the country difficult. Nigeria has greater potential than what is going on in the country today and I hope we can close the gap. We have what it takes as a country and we cannot continue like this.”
The lawmaker stressed the need for the agency to increase its investment in the agricultural sector and grow the sugarcane value chain, which he said is currently generating over $40billion annually for Brazil.
He bemoaned the privatisation of sugar factories that have not yielded the dividend required and called on the Nigerian government to take back the sugar factories that were privatised.
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