The Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), the country’s $1bn SWF that started investing in June last year, is hiring.
After setting up the executive team last year, the fund is starting to recruit lower down the career ladder. Last year hired Uche Orji, a former managing director at UBS in New York, as CEO, ex-Barclays operation risk head, Stella Ojekwe-Onyejeli, as chief risk officer, Tom Northover as an in-house economist, and Aminu Umar-Sadiq, formerly a London-based SocGen M&A associate, as a portfolio manager, and is still looking to recruit.
It’s currently searching internationally for a senior analyst, offering a six-figure salary to anyone suitable to take up the position. The catch, of course, is that you’ll have to move to Nigeria, so its preference is to lure Nigerian nationals with experience of working for multinational firms in developed financial centres, but is willing to consider any nationality.
With assets under management of $1bn, the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority is third-largest in sub-Saharan Africa, behind the $6.9bn Botswana and $5bn Angola SWFs, but still pales in comparison to oil wealth funds like the $600bn plus-sized Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) and Norway’s oil fund.
And while ADIA employs over 1,400 people, the number of staff at NSIA is still small – it has just 5-8 employees, but is beginning to expand. While SWFs have been accused of feeling decidedly like the fusty public sector, with internal politics and a feeling of diminished individual responsibility, the small cadre of investment bankers at the Nigerian fund suggests there will be a more dynamic feel.
Orji told Ventures Africa magazine that he would “actually encourage friction in my team, I encourage people to speak their minds. I will fire you if you’re a ‘yes man’, because you’re not adding any value. If all you do is say yes to what I say then you’re really not helping. You must have your own opinion”.
NSIA didn’t respond to further requests for information regarding their hiring plans.
In September, the fund made its first ever investment, allocating $200m to UBS, Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs to manage a fixed income portfolio. It’s also earmarked $10m to help provide funding to agricultural projects through its infrastructure fund and a further $9.92m in the Nigeria Mortgage Refinance Company.
NSIA was created to invest savings made from the country’s budgeted oil prices and the actual market prices. It has the infrastructure fund and the future generations, which invests in equities, fixed income, private equity and real estate. Both account for 32.5% of total holdings.