Finance Minister Inaugurates MOFI Board, Charges Members to Deliver on Mandate 

By Tony Obiechina, Abuja 

The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, on Friday inaugurated the Board of Directors of the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI) with a charge to members to deliver on their mandate.

It could be recalled that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu approved membership of the Board last month.

In a speech at the ceremony, the Minister said a high performance culture, reputation, integrity as well as productivity were expected from the board members to enable them deliver on their mandate.

According to him, MOFI was set up to become a national and world class organisation amongst other holders of sovereign assets that should uphold transparency, accountability in the management of government funds, adding that the board members were carefully selected to  develop MOFI in line with  world class standards.

Edun said, “Their mandate as holders and husbandry of Nigerian assets is to optimize those assets and do the best they can firstly to enumerate those assets, so that we are sure of what Nigeria owns, physical and other assets that have been built up over time and also to maximize  returns on those assets. 

“These are what the country owns apart from what it earns from export revenue, oil revenue and other government revenues. These assets can also earn returns on investments  to add to the budget and foreign exchange reserve under the care of the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI).”

While responding to a question on how to meet up with the 100 Trillion Naira target in the nation’s economy, Edun explained that the figure should be interrogated with rigorous and robust analysis to ascertain the evaluation of the assets owned by Nigeria, adding that the figures were even bigger than the current estimate.

The Minister highlighted the priority areas of MOFI to include: diversifying MOFI’s investments across different industries, sectors and assets classes as well as making the company more resilient, leveraging technology, artificial intelligence, improve portfolio monitoring, risk management, transparency, diligent oversight to maximize returns on investments.

He congratulated the new  Board members and stressed the need to collaborate with other National and World funds bodies so as to function more effectively

Dr. Shamsudeen Usman, who spoke on behalf of other  members appreciated President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Minister for the opportunity given to them to serve, noting that they were aware of the huge expectations about MOFI. “We will do our work with the greatest level of transparency, firstly the enumeration and maximization of value because we are expected to actually extract as much values from those assets as possible for Nigerians, issues of diversification and leveraging technology,  diligent oversight as well as productivity. We will set up the highest level of corporate governance, so that we become an example to other companies we are managing.”

Usman, pledged their commitment to make  significant contributions to the board.

in a statement by the Director of Press and Public Relations of the ministry,  Stephen Kilebi, the  MOFI Board of Directors include: The Chairman, Dr. Shamsudeen Usman, MD/CEO, Dr. Armstrong Takang  and eight other  members including Tajudeen Datti Ahmed, Femi Ogunseinde, Mrs.Oluwakemi Owonubi, Hajia Fatima Nana Mede, Ike Chioke, Ms Chantelle Abdul, Alheri Nyako and Bolaji Rafiu-Elelu.