The Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, on Friday, inaugurated the board of the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority.
The development followed the recent approval of the nomination of the members selected to reflect the 6 geopolitical zones of the country by National Economic Council, NEC.
The mandate of the board is essentially to increase investment in local infrastructure investment, touching on agriculture infrastructure, power, toll roads, second Niger bridge as well as health care.
Given a four year mandate, the board is the second since the establishment of the Authority. It would be chaired Babajide Zetilin (South West). The members included Halima Buba (North-East), Bello Maccido (North–West), Lois Laraba Machunga-Disu (North Central), Urum Kalu Eze (South East) and Asue Ighodalo (South-South).
Other members were Uche Orji, Stella Ojekwe-Onyejeli and Hanspeter Achermann.
Speaking at the inauguration, Osinbajo said: “Indeed despite the fiscally constrained environment, this administration has been able to increase the federal government’s commitment to the NSIA by 50%, committing an additional $500 million.”
He continued: “Though the federal government is committed to saving, the actual charge with this additional capital is investment.
“Thus as the NSIA moves to the second phase of its existence the expectation is that the committed capital will be deployed into projects that are in line with the administration’s key priority areas, namely: infrastructure, agriculture in order to improve our economy.”
