Members of the House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a resolution mandating the Executive arm of government to secure National Assembly’s approval before tampering with the country’s savings including the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF).
The resolution was passed sequel to the adoption of a motion on the ‘Need for the Federal Government to save funds for future generations’, sponsored by Hon. Chinedu Obidigwe.
The House also tasked the present administration on the need to develop the non-oil sectors of the economy by adopting alternative sources of revenue to enable foreign inflow from oil earnings to go straight to the SWF without affecting budget financing;
In his lead debate, Hon. Obidigwe stressed the need for the Federal Government to “make conscious and concerted efforts to secure the future of Nigerians.
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“The House also notes that Nigeria’s Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) aims at the following: save money for future generations, provide stabilization of funds to defend the economy against commodity (oil) price shocks, and provide financing for badly needed infrastructures.
“The House further notes that Nigeria, with an estimated population of over 200 million, ranks 58 in SWF ranking which is four places lower than Angola – an oil-producing African country with a population of 32.87 million as of 2021 and has $3.2 billion in assets.
“The House is aware of this significant contrast to what other oil producers such as Kuwait, which has $700 billion ‘Life-After-Oil-Fund’, different from its $41.7 billion foreign reserves and Angola with $3.2 billion in assets both as of March 2021.
“The House is concerned that a country such as Kuwait with a population of 4.2 million people and projected growth of 5.3 million by 2050, has a future fund of $700 billion to cater for their future population whereas Nigeria with an approximate population of over 200 million and an estimated population growth of 401 million people by 2050 has a Future Generations Fund of only $2.5 billion.
“The House is worried that the Federal Government has spent over N1.8 trillion on debts servicing in the first 5 months of the year 2021, representing approximately 98% of the total revenue generated in the same period, which begs the question of where the savings are,” he noted.
The House also urged Federal Government to make concerted and conscious efforts to secure the future by increasing earnings and diversification of resources.
The lawmakers also underscored the need for the present administration to focus more on non-oil sectors of the economy by adopting alternative sources of revenue to enable foreign inflow from oil earnings to go straight to the SWF without affecting budget financing.
The House also stressed the need for President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to urgently control population growth with policies necessary to fix the future population.
To this end, the House mandated the Committee on Legislative Compliance to ensure implementation.
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