The Welwitschia Sovereign Wealth Fund has achieved significant growth since its inception in 2022, nearly doubling in value and consistently surpassing its performance benchmark.
The Fund is benchmarked against the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global.
Central Bank Governor Johannes !Gawaxab said initially capitalised with seed capital to the tune of N$260 million, the Welwitschia Sovereign Wealth Fund’s assets under management have now grown to an amount of N$440 million.
“We started with N$260 million, that is in seed capital if I am not mistaken, so the latest figure we have is that the fund has actually outperformed the benchmark, and we have NS440 million, so that is the latest figure we have,” !Gawaxab said during the announcement of the repo rate.
The fund was able to achieve positive growth without the need for the government to make injections into the fund and add to the N$260 million initially invested.
“That is all invested offshore, and it has outperformed the benchmark, and there was no capital since the seed capital, it’s all investment returns that helped us get to the N$440 million,” he said.
The Welwitschia Fund is structured into short and long-term and has a balanced mandate where 70% of the assets bought are risky assets such as equities while the rest are fixed-income assets, real estate and private equity.
The Fund was established in May 2022 to safeguard the nation’s economy against fluctuations and ensure equitable distribution of benefits from its natural resources for the welfare of all Namibians.
The Bank of Namibia oversees the management of the Fund. About 2.5% of the intergenerational fund will be invested in infrastructure projects with socio-economic benefits for future generations.
