Yemisi Izuora/Ijeoma Agudosi
Nigeria is to inject $250 million into its sovereign wealth fund,(SWF).
This will be the first contribution since last year as government savings slightly improved despite a plunge in oil prices.
The money will come from recent proceeds from liquid natural gas exports, Rauf Aregbesola, governor of Osun state, told reporters in Abuja.
Aregbesola spoke after a meeting of the National Economic Council, a top decision-making body which includes 36 state governors, its central bank governor and vice president.
He said the balance of the excess crude account (ECA) an official oil savings account was $2.257 billion, up from $2.207 at the end of July and $2.078 billion at the end of June.
He gave no explanation for why the fund had risen when global oil prices were still depressed.
The wealth fund, a nest egg for future generations, had not received fresh funds since the previous government injected $1 billion in 2014.
The federal government established the Sovereign Investment Authority (SIA) in 2011 with $1 billion of seed capital in an effort to manage oil export revenues.
The fund is split into three components, a ‘Stabilisation Fund’ to act as a buffer against economic turbulence, an Infrastructure Fund and a Future Generations fund.