{"id":425914,"date":"2011-05-18T06:00:56","date_gmt":"2011-05-18T06:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/05\/18\/reps-pass-sovereign-wealth-fund-bill\/"},"modified":"2011-05-18T06:00:56","modified_gmt":"2011-05-18T06:00:56","slug":"reps-pass-sovereign-wealth-fund-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/18\/reps-pass-sovereign-wealth-fund-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"Reps pass Sovereign Wealth Fund Bill"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

ABUJA \u2014 THE House of Representatives yesterday passed a bill to create a sovereign wealth fund, paving the way for the country to improve its management of often-squandered crude oil earnings.<\/p>\n

The bill now needs to be signed by President Goodluck Jonathan to be enacted, after Nigeria\u2019s Senate passed the legislation last week. Lawmakers said the process should be straightforward as the lower house made no major amendments.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bill originated from Jonathan\u2019s office so there shouldn\u2019t be any further obstacles and I\u2019m sure he will sign it very soon,\u201d said Jide Solanke, Nigerian investment analyst at Lagos-based FSDH Securities.<\/p>\n

The fund is meant to replace Nigeria\u2019s Excess Crude Account (ECA), a pillar of IMF-backed reforms launched in 2003 into which the OPEC member nation currently saves any oil revenue above a benchmark price set each year in the budget.<\/p>\n

Critics of the ECA say there is no clear legal basis on which to determine how the windfall oil savings in the account should be shared between the tiers of government\u2014federal, state and local\u2014 leading to constant political wrangling.<\/p>\n

The account contained more than $20 billion when late President Umaru Yar\u2019Adua came to power in 2007 but by the end of last year it held less than $1 billion. The savings recovered again to around $6.9 billion by April due to high oil prices.<\/p>\n

Nigeria is one of only three OPEC member states not to have a sovereign wealth fund. Finance Minister Olusegun Aganga has said the wealth fund will provide a firmer legal basis to ringfence Nigeria\u2019s savings.<\/p>\n

President Jonathan is due to be sworn in for a new term on May 29 and will name a new cabinet following presidential, parliamentary and state governorship elections last month.<\/p>\n

Successful passage of the bill will arguably be Aganga\u2019s biggest single achievement in his time as finance minister and would give his profile a boost as Jonathan decides which ministers to retain and which to replace in his new cabinet.<\/p>\n

A wide_ranging energy reform bill is also before parliament but having been delayed for years there are fears it may not pass before the end of the current administration. Oil executives have said billions of dollars of investment are on hold until there is clarity over the framework for working in Africa\u2019s largest energy industry.<\/p>\n

If it is delayed beyond the end of the current term new lawmakers may want to make amendments to the mammoth piece of legislation which could delay it by months. But the relatively smooth passage of the wealth fund bill should lift optimism. \u201cIt is a good sign that legislators are moving quicker and hopefully we will see something similar with the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB),\u201d Solanke said.<\/p>\n

The government hopes the PIB will tackle issues including funding shortfalls at its joint ventures with foreign firms, insecurity in the Niger Delta, increasing local involvement in the industry and production of more gas for domestic power.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Comments are moderated. Please keep them clean and brief.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

See the original post here:
\nReps pass Sovereign Wealth Fund Bill<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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