Nigeria Plans 10-Year Fund for Infrastructure Investment

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Nigeria plans to introduce an infrastructure-focused fund that will be accessed by investors for as long as 10 years to boost growth after the pandemic, according to the state-owned Bank of Industry.

The lender is seeking the approval of the government for the fund to start, “hopefully by early next year or towards the end of this year,” Chief Executive Officer Olukayode Pitan said at a virtual investor conference in Lagos. Part of the funding will come from the country’s 10.6 trillion naira ($27.3 billion) pension assets, he said, without saying the size of the fund.

The Lagos-based bank raised 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) through debt in March, which it will use to support small- and medium-sized businesses in industries that have been impacted by the virus, Pitan said.

A lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus at the end of March shuttered businesses in the West African nation and caused profits to plummet. The country’s sovereign wealth fund is also focusing its investments this year in healthcare, agriculture and power industries to help the nation recover from the pandemic, Managing Director, Uche Orji said at the same conference.