Africa registers growth in wealth funds.

Africa is experiencing the strongest growth in new sovereign wealth funds in the world, a newreport by JPMorgan Asset Management shows.

During the past two years, 15 state funds have been set up or are being considered in Africa, Patrick Thomson, the global head of sovereigns at JPMorgan Asset told Bloomberg news in an interview.

With commodity prices rising, African countries are putting their surpluses into government-owned funds designed to manage a country’s wealth for future generations. Angola set up its $5 billion state
fund in October, and Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil producer, inaugurated its $1 billion fund eight months ago.

There are two main reasons why more state funds are being set up in Africa, “it’s the growth in commodity prices, and it’s the growth in foreign exchange reserves.”Mr. Thomson continued in the interview.

Africa’s biggest sovereign wealth fund is Algeria’s $77.2 billion Revenue Regulation Fund, according to the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute. It is followed by the $65 billion Libyan Investment Authority and Botswana’s $6.9 billion Pula Fund

Posted in: