Sovereign Wealth Fund Governance, Accounting Transparency, and Intergenerational Equity in Nigeria’s Fiscal Architecture

This study examines the governance structures, accounting transparency practices, and intergenerational equity implications of Nigeria's sovereign wealth fund, the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority, within the broader context of the country's fiscal architecture for managing natural resource wealth. Sovereign wealth funds represent a critical mechanism for converting exhaustible natural resource revenues into a durable intergenerational wealth asset. However, the effectiveness of SWFs in serving their intergenerational mandate depends critically on governance quality, investment discipline, and accounting transparency. Nigeria's NSIA, established in 2011, provides an important case for examining these dynamics in an African petro-state context. This study uses a longitudinal institutional analysis of the NSIA's governance evolution from 2011 to 2023, combining content analysis of audited financial statements, investment reports, and parliamentary oversight records with interviews of 25 NSIA board members, fund managers, economists, and civil society representatives. Governance quality is assessed using the Santiago Principles compliance framework. Accounting transparency is evaluated using a customized SWF disclosure index. Intergenerational equity is modeled using permanent income hypothesis projections and Hartwick Rule compliance estimates. Results reveal significant improvements in NSIA governance quality since inception but persistent gaps in real-time performance disclosure and parliamentary accountability. Nigeria's fiscal architecture does not yet satisfy the Hartwick Rule sustainability condition, suggesting that current oil wealth depletion rates exceed sustainable reinvestment levels. The study contributes an original Nigerian SWF governance-transparency-equity nexus model and recommends constitutional amendments to mandate independent NSIA governance and public annual intergenerational equity accounting.

Keywords: sovereign wealth fund, NSIA, intergenerational equity, fiscal governance, Hartwick Rule.