Nigeria, the world's eighth largest crude oil exporter, is finalizing plan to set up a sovereign wealth fund meant to help cushion it from the impact of a fall in world oil prices. Finance Minister Shamsuddeen Usman told Reuters a committee including Central Bank governor Chukwuma Soludo and President Umaru Yar'Adua's economic adviser would meet in the coming weeks to finalize a blueprint for the fund. “We are scheduled to hold a meeting in the next week or two where we will hopefully come out with a final report, which will be submitted to the president,” Usman said in an interview in the capital Abuja late on Wednesday. “This report is going to recommend how the fund will be run and the various investments the fund will use,” he said. Resource-rich countries from Saudi Arabia to Norway established multi-billion dollar state-run funds, which invest in foreign stocks, bonds and other financial instruments, to help provide a cushion should commodity prices tumble. The oldest such fund, set up by Kuwait in 1953 to save its oil revenues, is valued at some $250 billion, according to Morgan Stanley. The biggest, set up in 1976 by the United Arab Emirates, is estimated to be worth $875 billion. Standard Bank estimates the Nigerian government received a nominal $436 billion in direct hydrocarbons revenues and taxes between 1970 and 2007, which translates to around $1.19 trillion in today's money. But decades of mismanagement and corruption have seen the wealth squandered, leaving the vast majority of the country's 140 million people impoverished and lacking even basic services such as mains electricity or reliable public healthcare. World oil prices hit a record of over $147 a barrel earlier this month - more than double the $59 benchmark price Nigeria used to calculate its budget this year - and are currently at more than $125, swelling state coffers. Nigeria's foreign exchange reserves stood at $60.74 billion in mid-June. “Several other oil exporters have used the current oil boom to build powerful sovereign wealth funds,” said Antony Goldman, analyst at London-based risk consultancy PM consulting. “The challenge for Nigeria will be in the details - how will such a fund be managed, who will have oversight on its operations, where it will invest,” he told Reuters. The idea of public money being invested overseas may not go down well with a population struggling with power outages that can last for weeks as well as decrepit roads, soaring fuel prices and underfunded hospitals and schools. “There may also be political issues over the merits of investment abroad at a time when Nigeria needs substantial financing for long overdue projects in power and other areas of infrastructure,” Goldman said. Nigeria set up an excess crude account (ECA) five years ago into which it saves oil profits above the benchmark price, a system which was meant to help end years of boom and bust in sub-Saharan Africa's second-biggest economy. It was a pillar of IMF-backed reforms which helped the country clinch an $18 billion debt relief deal in 2005 and bolstered its appeal to emerging markets investors. But Nigeria's constitution makes no provision for how the ECA revenues should be shared among the three tiers of government - federal, state and local - leaving a legal void which has fuelled years of political wrangling. Nigeria has paid $6.8 billion from the account so far this year to its 36 state governors and analysts say it risks undermining a hard-won reputation for fiscal discipline if it continues disbursements at the current rate.
