The Chairman of the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), Mr Segun Ogunsanya, has called for greater mobilisation of domestic capital from local institutions to drive Nigeria’s economic development.
Mr Ogunsanya made the remarks during his address at the Invest in Lagos 3.0 Summit, themed Lagos: The Business Gateway to Africa, urging policymakers and investors to tap funds from pension administrators, insurance firms and banks rather than relying heavily on foreign development finance institutions (DFIs) and external funding sources.
He said Nigeria must move beyond heavy reliance on DFIs and external funding, arguing that significant untapped capital exists within the country’s financial ecosystem.
“I would like to see a deeper level of local capital formation. I’ve seen a lot of emphasis on DFIs and the money coming in from outside the country. But if you look deeply, we need to find ways of harnessing local capital, capital from pension funds, capital from insurance companies, capital from banks,” he said.
According to him, domestic pension funds, insurance assets and banking liquidity represent a sustainable source of long-term financing that can be structured to support infrastructure through Public-Private Partnership (PPP) frameworks.
Mr Ogunsanya disclosed that NSIA is currently anchoring a $1 billion infrastructure fund in collaboration with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), designed to strengthen infrastructure investment and de-risk large-scale projects.
“A couple of days ago, we just got some confirmation from IFC. They’re going to be part of a $1 billion fund that we’re anchoring. This $1 billion fund is to provide some sort of guarantee for infrastructure investment,” he said.
He explained that the fund would cover key stages of infrastructure delivery, including project preparation, project development, risk guarantees and risk capital support.
“The World Bank IFC just came in again, and this funding is meant to cover four different areas of any infrastructure investment — the project preparation phase, the development phase, those who want guarantees, and also to provide the risk capital itself,” he said.
Mr Ogunsanya noted that the initiative is aimed at improving project bankability while ensuring strict financial discipline and due diligence in investment selection.