NSIA, 87 Others Account for over $8tn Global SWFs’ Assets

NSIA, 87 Others Account for over $8tn Global SWFs’ Assets

Ndubuisi Francis in Abuja

The Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), operators of the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) together with 87 other SWFs across the globe accounted for more than $8 trillion assets in the pool of sovereign wealth, THISDAY has learnt.

A SWF is a state-owned investment fund or entity, which comprised of pools of money derived from a country’s reserves and invested for the benefit of that country’s economy and its citizens.

However, only five SWFs, according to statistics from the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute (SWFI), owned about 50 per cent of the $8 trillion global sovereign wealth assets as at December 2019.

The five SWFs were the Norway Government Fund (the largest SWF in the world) which had as at May 2019, over $1 trillion in assets; the China Investment Corporation–$940.6 billion and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority–$696.66 billion. Others were Kuwait Investment Authority, $592 billion and Hong Kong Monetary Authority Investment Portfolio with $509.35 billion.

The statistics also showed that the ten leading SWFs in Africa in 2019 were the Libyan Investment Authority, with $60 billion; the Egypt Fund, $12 billion; Fundo Soberano de Angola, $5 billion; The Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority, $1.69 billion and the Senegal FONSIS, which is fifth in Africa.

Others were Ghana Heritage Fund; Ghana Stabilisation Fund; Rwanda’s Agaciro Development Fund; Equatorial Guinea Fund for Future Generations and the Sovereign Fund of the Gabonese Republic.

The NSIA commenced operations in 2012 with a $1.5 billion seed capital, which was taken from the Excess Crude Account (ECA).

Its enabling legislation, the NSIA Act of 2011, required that the authority observed and incorporated international best practices into its policies and operations. Among such international practices are the “Santiago Principles”, a set of 24 guidelines incorporating best practices agreed and adopted by a group of the world’s leading Sovereign Wealth Funds.

With assets currently put at $1,690,440,000, the NSIA posted a 16 per cent growth in net value to over N617.7 billion in its 2018 audited financial results.

According to the agency, a favourable trajectory was recorded across the three-ringed funds – The Stabilisation Fund, Future GenNSIA is largely involved in investments in domestic infrastructure projects, especially agriculture and healthcare infrastructure.

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