Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan Signs SWF Bill
Posted on 05/28/2011
According to the press release, “President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has said that his Administration was fully committed to making Nigeria’s oil assets a vehicle for wealth creation, economic diversification and development.
In his remarks after signing the 2011 Appropriation (Amendment) Bill and the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) Bill into law at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Friday, May 27, President Jonathan said that the new NSIA will provide the country with a “strong, transparent and effective tool for the management of our nation’s petroleum wealth for the good of all Nigerians.”
The President announced that apart from its One Billion US Dollars seed capital, the NSIA will be funded every month by the excesses of budgetary revenue from oil coming into the Federation account.
He said that revenues accruing to the authority will be invested by it through three special funds – the Nigeria Infrastructure Fund, the Future Generations Fund and the Stabilisation Fund.
According to President Jonathan, the infrastructure fund will be dedicated to investments in the development of critical national infrastructure, with ten percent of it going to agriculture and government-sponsored projects that promote economic development in under-served sectors or regions of the country.
He said that the future generations fund will build an inter-generational savings base by investing in longer term assets that generate returns to accumulate wealth for future generations of Nigerians while the stabilization fund will help to protect annual national budgets by providing a stable, last resort source of financing during periods of fiscal deficit resulting from a sustained fall in oil prices.
President Jonathan commended the leadership and entire members of the National Assembly for the passage of the two bills.
He also applauded the committed efforts made by the Minister of Finance, Mr. Olusegun Aganga towards the passage of the NSIA Bill.
The signing of the two bills into law was witnessed by the Senate President, Chief David Mark, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Dimeji Bankole, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Alhaji Yayale Ahmed, the Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Mohammed Adoke, the Minister of National Planning, Dr. Shamsudeen Usman and the Minister of Finance.”
Source: Nigeria First – Official Website of the Office of Public Communications