Ben Agande
23 February 2013, Sweetcrude, Abuja- Leading financial services firm, JP Morgan, has been appointed by the Federal Government as the custodian of the Sovereign Wealth Fund preparatory to the formal take off of the fund next month.
This is coming on the heels of disclosure by the Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, CME, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala that the fund’s operation would be administered through three structures namely, Stabilization Fund, Infrastructure Fund and Future Generation Fund.
Briefing state House correspondents after the meeting of the National Economic Council, the Chief Executive Officer of the SWF, Mr. Uche Orji, said everything has been put in place for the take off of the fund in March.
Mr Orji who briefed state House correspondents alongside the governor of Anambra state, Peter Obi, the Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as well as the Minister of National Planning, Shamsudeen Usman revealed that he was in the process of recruiting members of staff of 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.
Giving further insight on the operation of the fund, Okonjo-Iweala 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 $1bn that has been put aside will be allocated into the three windows and investments can begin shortly according to the strategy,” she explained.
