The minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, has said that more funding will be given to the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority, from the country’s oil windfall savings. She was speaking on the sidelines of the IMF’s spring meetings in Washington DC.

The excess crude account contains monies from Nigeria’s oil windfall savings. One billion dollars seed capital from the account was used to start the Nigeria Sovereign Investment authority in two thousand and eleven. The agency has been involved in managing and investing these funds for the country.

Nigeria’s finance minister now says government intends to improve on the investment authority’s funding. The International Monetary Fund at its spring meeting in Washington DC clarified its poor rating of Nigeria’s sovereign wealth fund as targeted at the management of the excess crude account and not the investment authority.

Nigeria has been involved in several conversations at the spring meetings targeted at its economic benefit. Nigeria has also sought investment interests into its economy from international investors at the meetings.

At the corporate council on Africa roundtable, for example, where a presentation on Nigeria’s economic outlook for 2019 was presented, investors were brought up to speed on the country’s reforms in several sectors which promise good returns on investment.

The amount in Excess Crude Account was significantly reduced last year after government made heavy withdrawal in just a month. In November 2018, the Excess Crude Account had $2.3 billion but closed the year with total sum of $631 million.

It may be recalled Nigeria’s Acting Finance Minister Zainab Ahmed said in December 2018 that debits from the excess crude account were authorized. She said they were expended for security purposes as directed by the National Economic Council.