FG Targets $13bn Annual Revenue From National Assets

The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Mr Wale Edun, on Tuesday, disclosed plans by the Federal Government to leverage the nation’s assets to generate about $13 billion in annual revenue.

Speaking in Lagos at the launch of the Afrinvest 2023 Nigerian Banking sector report, Edun was represented by the Managing Director/Chief Executive, Ministry of Finance Incorporated, MoFI, Mr Armstrong Katang.

The minister explained that the plan included enumerating all the national assets, introducing governance, as well as monetising and optimising the assets.

According to him, this will be achieved by way of a National Assets Register to be created by the MoFI, which will be leveraged to generate a revenue of up to 3.0 per cent of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or $13.3 billion.

The above plans will also be used to increase the value of National Assets Under Management, (AuM) of the MoFI to N100 trillion from the present value of N18 trillion, Edun added.

The minister also revealed that the scheme was among the measures designed to boost Federal Government revenue and achieve a revenue-to-GDP ratio of 25 per cent by 2026 from the present 8.0 per cent.

Edun further highlighted the role of MOFI in achieving the revenue-to-GDP target.

“We have properties that are lying fallow around the world, not being used. In fact, they’re liabilities. That has to change. You cannot be renting a property in the same city for $20,000 a month, whereas you have another property in another city lying fallow and wasting away,” he said.

“You live in Lagos, go to the Central Business District, CBD, close to Tafawa Balewa Square, TBS, most ministries have their buildings there. How do you let such prime properties in the neck of the world dance? And we say we don’t have money. Nigeria is too blessed to be poor.

“I did say that our target is to grow our AUM to $100 trillion. In fact, every day, the more I do this work, the more confident I am that it can be done and it will be done, because we do have the assets.

“At the moment, my chairman here mentioned that $18.3 trillion, and I just reminded him that that was based on the old exchange rate. That does not include our concessioned assets. It does not include any of our real estate assets. It does not include any of our infrastructure assets.”

According to the minister, the strategy is simple. He said the first thing is to enumerate all the assets that Nigeria owns across the different asset classes and that the second thing is to introduce governance, “because we believe governance is fundamental in value creation. And then thirdly, monetisation and optimisation, which would also include rationalisation.”

Edun noted that there was evidence that if the government succeeded in creating a national assets register and putting the policies and regulation in place, two things could happen.

“One is that the revenues that will come from just that effort is equivalent to three percent, or can be up to three percent of your GDP,” he said.

“Let us suppose for the purpose of this exercise that our GDP is $450 billion. So you’re talking about $13.3 billion in extra revenues per year that can come from that exercise. The second is that the AUM of those assets that are put together could be up to two times your GDP.

“So if we drive ourselves hard, we should have AUM not less than even if it’s 1x of our GDP, which is $450 million.”