NSIA Profit Plummets 91% as Currency Windfalls Evaporate
The Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) has reported a bruising 91% drop in annual profit, as the era of easy gains from naira devaluation came to an abrupt halt. Net income for the 2025 financial year fell to $107.03m, a staggering descent from the $1.24bn recorded in 2024. The state-owned fund, which manages Nigeria’s oil trimmings, saw its bottom line hollowed out by the disappearance of foreign-exchange-driven windfalls that had previously flattered its books.
The numbers reveal a sharp correction following the relative stabilisation of the naira. In 2024, the currency’s slide handed the NSIA a $566.9m exchange gain; by 2025, that trend reversed into a $214.2m loss. Total operating income mirrored this collapse, sliding to $137.97m from $1.3bn. It appears the authority is now grappling with a “normalisation” of earnings, stripped of the artificial buoyancy provided by a volatile exchange rate.
Beyond the currency headache, the NSIA’s exit from the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative (PFI) further thinned the revenue stream. Agriculture-related income, which stood at $76.42m in 2024, vanished entirely in 2025 as operatorship was handed over to the Ministry of Finance Incorporated. The authority defended the move as a planned transition toward a “market-driven model,” though the immediate impact on the profit and loss account was undeniable.
Market volatility also took a toll on the fund’s broader portfolio. Gains from FX-linked collateralised securities, which delivered $407.9m in 2024, dried up to a mere $3.1m. Meanwhile, the equity desk saw a $28.4m profit swing into a $7.2m loss. These figures suggest that while the NSIA’s core mission remains intact, its sensitivity to global and local market shifts remains acute.
Despite the headline crash, the authority’s balance sheet showed a stubborn resilience. Total assets grew to $3.42bn, supported by a modest rise in core operating income to $349.07m. Interest income also provided a silver lining, climbing to $197.34m. Management appears keen to steer the narrative away from the profit slump, pointing instead to these underlying metrics as evidence of long-term stability and “sustainability.”
The 2025 results serve as a cold shower for those accustomed to the outsized returns of the post-devaluation years. Analysts view the contraction not as a failure of management, but as a sober reflection of an economy moving away from one-off currency shocks. For the NSIA, the challenge now lies in proving it can generate meaningful alpha in a climate where the exchange rate is no longer doing the heavy lifting.