Armando Manuel | Perspectives from FSDEA | 7th edition #PIAFRICA

What strategic role do alternative investments play in FSDEA’s portfolio to ensure optimal long-term returns, capital preservation, and Angola’s sustainable development?

FSDEA’s strategic asset allocation adheres to a diversification-focused approach, balancing exposures across geographies, sectors, and markets to achieve sustainable long-term portfolio growth while maintaining a risk profile aligned with the Fund’s objectives and mandates.

In the national context, FSDEA has established a targeted alternative investment strategy, prioritizing sectors where the country faces significant structural weaknesses yet offers substantial profitability potential. These sectors include agriculture, livestock, food processing, value-added mining, petrochemicals, logistics, renewable energy, education, and healthcare. FSDEA’s interventions aim to address critical gaps in these sectors, not only fostering job creation and household income generation but also enhancing the efficiency and integration of value chains. This approach is expected to have a transformative impact, particularly in ensuring the supply of essential food products, such as vegetable and animal protein, thereby contributing to food security and, ultimately, strengthening national sovereignty.

Many African countries are creating sovereign wealth funds. What key insights and experiences will you share at PI Africa 2025 with other African countries looking to do the same, in terms of some of the key lessons learnt?

The establishment of sovereign wealth funds should be founded on fundamental pillars, including:

  • A clearly defined mandate.
  • Strategic alignment with the long-term economic sustainability goals of the respective countries.
  • Robust institutional governance.

These elements are critical to ensuring that the fund achieves its intended objectives. For sovereign wealth funds to operate effectively, institutional autonomy is paramount. This requires the implementation of a transparent legislative and regulatory framework that clearly delineates the roles and responsibilities of the management team, key stakeholders, and the sponsoring government.

Adopting global standards, such as the Santiago Principles, and participating in leading international forums like the International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds (IFSWF) and the African Sovereign Investors Forum (ASIF), provides valuable benchmarks and facilitates the adoption of best practices. These tools are essential in fostering accountability, efficiency, and credibility within sovereign wealth fund operations.

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Armando Manuel

Chairman of the Board of Directors, FSDEA ( Fundo Soberano), Angola