Wealth Fund Seeks to Invest Some of Senegal Oil Windfall Abroad

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DAKAR (Capital Markets in Africa) – Senegal’s sovereign wealth fund is considering investing in neighboring countries after it starts receiving part of the oil and gas revenues from new fields in the nation.

The $25 billion economy, set to start production next year, will allocate a minimum of 10% of the sector’s revenues to the fund, Babacar Gning, chief investment officer at the state-owned Sovereign Fund for Strategic Investments or Fonsis, said in an interview.“The law allows the fund to invest up to 25% of the assets under management abroad,” said Gning at the sidelines of the Africa Private Equity and Venture Capital Conference in the capital, Dakar. “For now we need to focus on the local market and once the fund reaches a critical size, we can invest in other markets,” starting with other West African economies with which it shares the CFA franc currency, he said.

The West African nation is betting on future oil and gas production to boost economic growth to 10% next year, according to Finance Minister Amadou Hott, who expects high growth levels for a sustained period thereafter. The International Monetary Fund sees the economy expanding 5% this year and 9.2% in 2023.

Between 2014 and 2017, reserves of more than 1 billion barrels of oil and 40,000 billion cubic feet of gas were found in Senegal — most of them shared with Mauritania, according to the IMF. These discoveries have prompted Senegal to be hailed as one of the region’s most promising new producers.

Part of that new income will be added to the capital of Fonsis, which aims to invest $500 million domestically by 2025, according to Gning. 

Fonsis, which has $650 million worth of assets under management, launched a $106 million fund targeting small- and medium-sized enterprises this year. It’s now planning an infrastructure fund of an unspecified amount to reduce risk and make projects more attractive to private investors, he said.

Source: Bloomberg Business News

 

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