The Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), managers of the country’s Sovereign Wealth Fund reduced its assets exposure to the US at the beginning of this year and bought other investments to diversify its portfolio.
The fund, which had 4.42 trillion naira ($2.76 billion) under management as of December, reduced the exposure of its Future Generation Fund to US markets and bought more Japanese, Australian and European assets, Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority Chief Executive Officer Aminu Umar-Sadiq said in an interview with Bloomberg TV on the sidelines of Qatar Economic Forum in Doha on Tuesday.
The adjustment boosted the fund’s holdings of “growth assets as well as investment grade corporate bonds,” Umar-Sadiq said. The move was a “diversification play. It was important given where we saw the markets, and how buoyant it was, that we began to look elsewhere to ensure we had a robust portfolio,” he said.
Nigeria, Africa largest oil producer, established the NSIA in 2011 to invest and manage excess funds earned from crude sales. It seeded the fund with an initial $1 billion when it began operations and has provided an additional $971 million in several installments since then.
Umar-Sadiq said the NSIA also consolidated its equity portfolio into “fewer high-quality stocks” and will continue to retain an exposure to the US because of the depth of the market.
“The US has the largest companies and institutions, so irrespective of what is happening today, it goes without saying that it will continue to be in play,” he said.
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