Nigeria’s first listed infrastructure debt fund is reinforcing its appeal to income-seeking investors as rising cash flows, expanding assets and resilient loan pricing helped push returns to record levels in 2025.
The Nigeria Infrastructure Debt Fund (NIDF), managed by Chapel Hill Denham, closed the year with total assets of N137.79 billion, up from N120.74 billion a year earlier, driven largely by growth in cash balances and steady expansion of its infrastructure loan book.
Net assets attributable to unitholders rose to N130.74 billion from N113.75 billion, underscoring the fund’s ability to compound value while sustaining high quarterly payouts.
That growth fed into one of the strongest cumulative performances on Nigeria’s exchange. NIDF’s total return index climbed to 415.19 by the end of December 2025, compared with 343.2 in 2024 and a base value of 100 in mid-2017.
The fund has consistently beaten its benchmark, the 10-year Federal Government of Nigeria bond, benefiting from loan pricing that typically sits 300 to 500 basis points above sovereign yields on a floating-rate basis.
The fund’s earnings profile reflects the predictable cash flows that infrastructure investors price. Interest income from infrastructure loans rose to N21.56 billion in 2025 from N17.64 billion in the prior year, while net fair-value gains on those loans improved to N1 billion from N370 million. Combined with other income of N3.21 billion, total income reached N25.78 billion, up from N21.58 billion in 2024.
Operating expenses remained tightly controlled at N2.15 billion, allowing profit after tax to climb to N23.63 billion, compared with N19.59 billion a year earlier. That translated into robust distributable earnings, enabling the fund to pay and provide for distributions of N21.88 billion over the year, broadly in line with its long-standing income mandate.
For the fourth quarter alone, profit after tax rose to N6.75 billion from N5.91 billion in the same period of 2024, even as operating costs edged higher. The fund declared a Q4 distribution of N4.68 per unit, payable in February 2026, fully funded from cash inflows generated during the quarter.
NIDF entered 2026 with a stronger liquidity position. Cash and cash equivalents jumped to N40.20 billion at year-end from N25.78 billion in 2024, reflecting both higher operating inflows and disciplined deployment of capital. Financial assets measured at fair value through profit or loss stood at N95.86 billion, compared with N93.37 billion a year earlier, while total liabilities remained modest at just over N7.05 billion.
The increase in net assets, alongside a rise in the number of units in issue to about 1.20 billion, pushed net asset value per unit to N109.28 from N107.79. With the units last trading around N115, the fund continues to trade at a premium to NAV, a sign of sustained investor demand for yield and relative safety in a volatile macroeconomic environment.
At the heart of that demand is a diversified infrastructure loan portfolio spanning 20 investments across nine subsectors. As of December 2025, the portfolio carried a weighted average annualised yield of 19.87 percent, with an average tenor at disbursement of 9.61 years and a remaining life of 7.35 years. About 96 percent of the loans are senior secured, 95 percent are floating-rate, and all are denominated in naira, helping insulate the fund from foreign-exchange volatility.
Pipeline networks account for the largest share of exposure at 41 percent, followed by marine infrastructure at 20 percent, off-grid solar at 11 percent, telecom towers at 10 percent and gas processing plants at 9 percent. Smaller allocations to power generation, broadband internet and solar home systems broaden the fund’s reach across Nigeria’s real-asset economy.
Construction exposure remains limited at about 11 percent of the loan book, reducing execution risk while preserving upside from assets that are already generating cash.
Beyond the existing portfolio, the fund has committed an additional N3.0 billion and approved two further investments totaling N35.4 billion that are under documentation. These deals point to continued asset growth and suggest that the manager sees no shortage of bankable infrastructure projects despite tighter financial conditions in the broader economy.
For investors, the appeal lies in the combination of yield and visibility. The Q4 distribution implies a trailing distribution yield of about 20.99 percent, one of the highest on the Nigerian Exchange, supported by long-term contracts and predictable cash flows rather than short-term trading gains.
While the fund cautions that distributions and capital repayment are not guaranteed, its 2025 results highlight how infrastructure debt can offer a rare mix of income, inflation protection and relative stability in Nigeria’s capital markets.
With rising assets, improving liquidity and a growing pipeline of approved investments, NIDF enters 2026 positioned to maintain its role as a bellwether for listed infrastructure finance in Africa’s most populous economy.