The House of Representatives on Wednesday rejected the management of Sovereign Wealth Fund by foreign firms, just as it mandated its Committees on Commerce and Justice to investigate the contracting of the SWF to three foreign firms.
The committee has two weeks to report its findings to the House/
The three foreign firms contracted to manage the Fund are UBS, Credit Swiss and Goldman.
Deliberating on a motion by House minority leader Femi Gbajabiamila (APC, Lagos) some of the legislators argued that the appointment of foreign financial institutions to manage Nigerian Sovereign Wealth Fund amounts to entrusting Nigeria’s savings, wealth, economic sovereignty and security in the hands of foreigners.
Gbajabiamila said “The appointment of UBS and Goldman Sachs amounts to a conflict of interests as the MD of the NSIA and the Initiator, former Minister of Finance, Olusegun Aganga are former employees of the two respective institutions contrary to the Code of Conduct provided for under Fifth schedule part 1 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 2009.”
According to him, the Governing Council for the Sovereign Wealth Investment Authority (SWIA), established by an Act of the National Assembly to advise the authority on matters pertaining to the Fund was only inaugurated a week ago, long after the appointment of the foreign firms, leaving this House in doubt of the transparency of the process that led to their appointment.”
The minority leader maintained that “the step taken by NSIA, if not given a second thought, may go a long way in empowering foreign institutions against their Nigerian counterparts, and further entrust Nigerian Economic sovereignty and security in the hand of foreigners; a step too dangerous to the nation’s economic security.”
Contributing, Rep Friday Itulah (Edo- PDP) warned that there were inherent risks in allowing foreign firms to manage the Fund, stressing that, as an independent country, Nigeria must not sell her sovereignty to other countries.
Rep Arua Arunsi, also in his views pointed out that Nigerian Government had no reason whatsoever to contract out the management of the nation’s Sovereign Wealth Fund to foreigners.
But arguing against the motion, Reps Betty Apiafi, Uzor Azubuike and Karimi Sunday all insisted that there was nothing wrong with the decision of the Government.
Rep Azubuike said that the first consideration in any investment is security, stating that since there were no trusted banks in Nigeria that could manage such huge funds without disappointing the people, it was a wise decision to contract its management to trust firms with international reputation and tract record.
At the end of the debate, those in support of the motion narrowly carried the day when Tambuwal put it to vote. He also referred the matter to the two committees for further legislative input.