Emma Okonji
The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI), Dr. Amstrong Takang, has said the new mandate of MOFI is to ensure transparency and accountability in order to deliver value to Nigerians.
Takang who spoke yesterday on ARISE NEWS Channel, the broadcast arm of THISDAY Newspapers, said every asset owned by the federal government must deliver value to Nigeria and to Nigerians, with a strong mandate to make sure that such value is commercial in nature.
According to him, “It is our strong belief that the value we create will expand beyond the physical space so that the government will continue to have a lot of resources to deploy in other priority sectors of the Nigerian economy.”
Speaking on the backdrop of the conference organised by MOFI last Tuesday in Abuja, where it launched N100 billion project preparation fund, Takang said organising the conference became a priority because it would further strengthen federal government’s investments, which invariably are the common wealth of the over 220 million Nigerians. He said the conference spoke volume about government’s transparency and objectivity, and also served as an opportunity to tell Nigerians what the new MOFI would do for them for the benefit of Nigerians.
Giving details of the new MOFI, Takang said: “MOFI was established in 1959 in recognition of the need to identify the policy role of government, the regulatory role of government and government’s involvement in commercial enterprises.
“It was against that backdrop that shares in government parastatals like former NITEL, NEPA, Nigeria Airways, Bank of Industry, Bank of Agriculture and many others, including the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), are held with MOFI.
“Until last year, MOFI existed as an entity, where majority of its investments were not made from a strategic stand point, and there was no framework and no governance structure to govern management and to control. But last year, government made a critical decision to restructure MOFI to become a trusted custodian and active manager of federal government’s holdings in investment assets and other resources. Part of the restructuring involved the establishment of a governing council that is chaired by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, with his vice president as the Ordinate Chair, while the deputy chair is the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy. Its Board of Directors consists of six Non-Executive Directors and four Executive Directors. It also has executive management team made up of four Executive Directors, led by me.”
According to him, MOFI will be positioned as an autonomous institution that will make good returns on investments for Nigeria, and could by likened to financial institutions in Singapore that are generating money for the government of Singapore to develop the country.
“The Singapore financial institutions are model that MOFI can develop to raise money for the federal government. We will ensure that Nigerian investments are brought under one umbrella in order to grow the investments,” Takang added.
Reacting to questions as to when Nigerian assets that were penciled down for sale will be sold, Takang said all identified assets for sale would first be made commercially viable before their sales in order to get appreciable value from them.
“We will begin by first identifying the assets owned by government through a national asset register, and ensure they are commercially viable before selling them so that Nigeria can gain from its own assets,” Takang further stated.
