Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

By Muhammad Bello

The Federal Government has appointed a leading financial services firm, JP Morgan, as the custodian of the $1 billion Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF), preparatory to the formal take-off of the fund next month.

This came as the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, disclosed that the fund’s operation would be administered through three structures namely: Stabilisation Fund, Infrastructure Fund and Future Generation Fund.

Briefing state House Correspondents after the meeting of the National Economic Council (NEC) in Abuja Thursday, the Chief Executive Officer of the SWF, Mr. Uche Orji, said everything had been put in place for the take-off of the fund in March.

Orji, who spoke alongside the Governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi; Okonjo-Iweala as well as the Minister of National Planning, Shamsudeen Usman, revealed that he was in the process of recruiting members of staff for the fund.

“The strategies we are going to deploy is obviously hybrid; we will have some external managers managing some of the funds for us and some would be run in-house. JP Morgan has been selected as our custodian. We also have investment consultants,” he said.

Speaking on the issue, Okonjo-Iweala explained that the investment windows would be explored by the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), which is a corporate governance system put in place to fast track the use of the fund.

She said investment strategies had already been prepared for the fund’s three windows that include the stabilisation window, infrastructure investment window and the future generation window.

“The $1 billion that has been put aside will be allocated to the three windows and investments can begin shortly according to the strategy,” she explained.