President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the constitution of the board and executive management team of the newly restructured Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI), to help drive the government’s objectives and execute its expected mandate.
This is coming barely 3 months after the Federal Government announced the commencement of the process of restructuring the MOFI, the investment vehicle of the Federal Government with over N30 trillion in assets size, some of which are non-performing.
The new board is to be chaired by Dr. Shamsudeen Usman, while the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO), who will lead the new executive management team is Dr. Armstrong Katang.
This disclosure is contained in a statement issued by the Special Adviser to the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning on Media and Communications, Yunusa Tanko Abdullahi.
Abdullahi said that the board of directors of MOFI was to provide strategic direction and oversight while the executive management team is to drive effective day-to-day operations of the business and will be supported by the middle management team.
Members of the new board and executive management
- Abdullahi in the statement said, “The constituted part-time board members are: Dr. Shamsudeen Usman, Chairman. The non-executive directors are Permanent Secretaries, Finance and Petroleum. Accountant-General of the Federation, and representative of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Others are Mr. Olawale Edun, Hajiya Fatima Mede, Ike Chioke, Muhammad Nda; and Barrister Alheri Bulus Nyako.
- “Mr. President also approved Executive Management including Dr. Armstrong Katang as CEO, Eric Ojo, Executive Director, Portfolio, Sani Yakubu, Executive Director, Investment, and Oluwafemi Owonubi, Executive Director, Risk.”
- The statement added, “all the above persons were identified with key competencies to drive the achievement of MOFI’s governance and management objectives.”
For the record
- MOFI is a “custodian entity for Federal Government’s interests in commercial entities and investments. It is a corporation solely vested with the responsibility to manage all federal government investments, interests, estates, easements and rights.
- Recall that earlier in October 2022, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, had disclosed that the Federal Government had commenced the restructuring of the MOFI as part of overall measures to revive over N30 trillion non-performing assets and boost government revenue.
- To achieve this, the federal government sought to fully set up MOFI as a world-class investment company with a new management and board to move from the civil service structure where it sits, as a unit under the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, with core professionals with specialization in portfolio management.
- Ahmed said the MOFI has N30 trillion in terms of asset size. So, the company can accommodate a debt of N10 trillion with assets of N30 trillion.
- Meanwhile, MOFI has been existing for many years and has gradually become quite inefficient to the extent that it accumulated a debt of over N10 trillion.
