Nigeria approves $1 bln disbursal from oil savings

Nigeria’s Acting President Goodluck Jonathan on Friday approved the disbursal of a further $1 billion from the country’s windfall oil savings, leaving about $4.1 billion in the account, government officials said.

“The Acting President has just approved the sharing and distribution of an additional $1 billion from the excess crude account for urgent national development programmes,” Minister of State for Finance Remi Babalola told reporters in Abuja.

The disbursal comes in addition to $2 billion in savings approved by Jonathan for release to the country’s 36 states and government agencies a month ago.

The OPEC member saves any oil revenue above a benchmark price into the account, a pillar of IMF-backed reforms launched in 2003 meant to help insulate sub-Saharan Africa’s second-biggest economy from volatility in global oil prices.

Jonathan took over as Nigeria’s acting head of state in February because of the ill-health of President Umaru Yar’Adua, who recently returned from three months in a Saudi hospital.

The excess crude account stood at over $20 billion when Yar’Adua, who remains too sick to govern, took over in 2007 but his administration regularly dipped into the account, raising questions about Nigeria’s commitment to fiscal discipline.

Babalola said the latest disbursal — meant for specific projects that needed to be executed “before the rainy season” — would be credited to the account of the various tiers of government by March 16.

Reuters.