I’m not going to write anything original here; but every so often I hear cheap-shot comments about the Nigerian (and more rarely the Angolan) Sovereign Wealth Funds.
Nigeria has a $1.4 bn fund where as Angola has some $5 bn. Sounds like a lot of money until you compare to peers: Norway has about $890 bn, Kuwait $600 bn etc. But before any jokes about African financial (mis)-management here is my list:
- Norway: $890 bn
- Nigeria: $1.4 bn
- UK,.. er, well, lets see…. check down the back of the sofa… oh yes, now I remember – there is no UK SWF, despite 50 years of production from the UKCS, and some cumulative 26 bn bbls of oil and 14 bn boe of gas (data up to 2010)
Singapore, with no oil wealth at all, and less than 100 years of existence has not one, but two SWFs, with a total of $540 bn, built whilst being a net importer of hydrocarbons…
Clearly there has to have been a huge dividend to the UK in terms of infrastructure and services…. again, better check down the back of the sofa and see if we can find any evidence of this. Nope.
Apparently not – looks like it all went into the house price bubble… hmm…