Nigerian Senate calls for end of SWF

Nigeria’s upper house passed a motion on Tuesday calling for a sovereign wealth fund to be shut down.

The country’s USD 2.4-billion Excess Crude Account is intended to collect money from oil sales above the Ministry of Finance’s benchmark to use for future emergency budget shortfalls. The motion called the fund unconstitutional and set up a committee to investigate its transactions. 

“At various times and from several quarters in 2013, it was purported that USD 5 billion was missing from the ECA, and that USD 2 billion was withdrawn without authorisation,” Senator Rose Oko said. “These accusations between tiers of government portray a financial system that is flawed and without probity.”

International watchdog group Natural Resource Governance Institute called the Excess Crude Account “the most poorly governed sovereign wealth fund assessed by the index” in June 2017. Nigerian institutions have also objected to the fund, with a case being debated by the supreme court since 2012.