The Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI) has announced that the Federal Government’s investment assets, valued at N38.3 trillion, are currently undergoing audit and reform aimed at boosting transparency and strengthening corporate governance in public enterprises.
Dr. Armstrong Takang, Chief Executive Officer of MOFI, disclosed this on Wednesday during the inauguration of the 2025 Guidelines on Corporate Governance by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in Lagos.
Takang said Nigeria, for years, lacked a comprehensive record of its public assets, with many citizens unaware of what the country owns, their locations, or how they were performing.
“When we began this process, only N1.5 trillion was recorded as the value of government-owned assets. But after assessing just 20 of them, we discovered a net asset value of N38.3 trillion,” he said.
He noted that many of the enterprises had not paid dividends for decades, with some either abandoned or operating below capacity.
Takang cited failed government ventures like Nigerian Airways, Ajaokuta Steel, and Delta Steel as examples of valuable investments that turned into ghost towns, yielding no returns to the country despite billions of dollars in funding.
He attributed the long-term failures to the absence of sound corporate governance structures, accountability, and performance monitoring.
“Managers of these enterprises often operated without transparency, without audited financials, and without being held accountable when things went wrong,” he stated.
To address this, Takang said MOFI is developing a comprehensive asset registry to track all public investment assets owned by the federal government.
The registry, he said, would capture what is owned, its location, value, who manages it, and how it performs.
“This is not just about keeping records. It’s about transparency and accountability. Every Nigerian deserves to know what the government owns and what we’re getting in return,” he said.
He added that the registry would guide decisions on whether to grow, sell, or restructure specific assets.
Beyond the registry, MOFI has also launched a corporate governance scorecard to evaluate the performance of state-owned enterprises.
The scorecard assesses transparency, dividend payments, capital growth, liquidity, and community impact.
According to Takang, an independent evaluation team made up of professionals from institutions such as the Financial Reporting Council, the Institute of Directors, and the Society for Corporate Governance is handling the assessments.
He emphasized that corporate governance is not just about rules, but a necessity for Nigeria’s journey toward becoming a trillion-dollar economy.
“If we want to be a $1 trillion economy, we can’t keep acting like we’re in the third division. We must adopt the discipline and structure of those in the premier league,” he said.
Takang also stressed that public assets should be divested only when they have succeeded and become self-sustaining, not when they’ve failed.
“Strong institutions, good governance, and effective asset management are the bedrock of economic growth, job creation, and national pride,” he said.
“A rich man in a poor country is still poor. For Nigeria to earn global respect and dignity for its people, we must build a strong economy and that begins with properly managing what we already own.”
