Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, a US based oil company is reported to have announced the discovery of an "active petroleum system" in the Sierra Leone-Liberian basin. The same drillers discovered oil in Ghana 2 years ago.

According to the company "the new well - called Venus - is one of more than 30 identified prospects across 10 blocks offshore of Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast and Ghana. "

It is amazing to note that governments in Africa, a continent, which is rich in minerals, petroleum and other natural resources, hardly talk about sovereign National Wealth. We only hear taxes as a source of National income. Sierra Leone has huge diamond deposits. There are many Gambians today who owe their wealth to the diamond mines of Sierra Leone. It is also noted that for many years minerals of diverse nature were being exported from the Gambia. Our Countries and continent have failed to build institutions which could enter into legitimate partnership with foreign companies.

Equality in Partnership between an African Country and a foreign company cannot be achieved through lip service. It could only be done by building sovereign National wealth so as to buy majority or close to majority shares in companies which invest in our countries. At the level of the continent many people agree that there should be an African Investment Bank which could help countries to have capital to develop local potential for the generation of sovereign National wealth. Others argue the African Development Bank is already in existence and what is required is for African Governments to redirect their investments so that they could reclaim majority share holding of the institution. Libya for example has been able to accumulate huge deposits of sovereign national wealth after being deterred from wasting it on attempt to acquire a nuclear potential for security purposes. Such wealth could have been deposited in an African Investment Bank or to buy shares of the African Development Bank. African Countries could have borrowed money from such institutions to establish public mining and petroleum companies which would invest in public/private mining and petroleum partnerships so as to enlarge their share of the financial returns from investments.

Countries which have not made effort to have large outlays of sovereign National wealth cannot invest much in the development of their resources and would therefore be offered only pittance. As more oil deposits are found throughout the sub region, regional integration should become an added priority.