Nigeria has picked the leaders of the team to head the new sovereign wealth fund. The new team will steer the country’s oil revenues into proper investments to help it grow. Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said the fund would start with about $1 billion in the kitty.
The management team for the sovereign wealth fund will come from First Bank and UBS Securities. Alhaji Mahey Rasheed, a board member at First Bank Plc and Uche Orji of UBS Securities will serve as the fund’s MD and CEO
Nigeria’s president, Goodluck Jonathan, had signed the fund into law earlier this year amid opposition from state governors. The governors later climbed onboard but limited the initial amount to go into the fund from $7 billion down to $1 billion.
The fund has three main aims: saving money for future generations, funding infrastructure, and defending the economy against commodity price shocks. “I think the sovereign wealth fund will make Nigeria more attractive for investors,” Okonjo-Iweala told reporters. She said she hoped more money would be paid in later, adding that 20% of the fund would go to each of its three targets and the board would decide how to invest the other 40%.
No comments:
Post a Comment