Nigeria savings account balance now stands at $72.4m

The Federal Government has said that Nigeria’s Excess Crude Account (ECA), a savings account in which crude oil sales above the budget bench mark for every year is saved, balance as at 20th January 2021 is $72,411,197.80.

This fact was stated by the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed at the first National Economic Council meeting of the year 2021 presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, with State Governors, Federal Capital Territory Minister, Central Bank Governor and other senior government officials in attendance.

Zainab reported to the Council that “the ECA balance as at 20th January 2021 is $72,411,197.80; Stabilisation Account balance as at 19th January, 2021, N28, 800, 711,295.37; Natural Resources Development Fund Account, balance as at 19th January 2021, N95, 830,729,470.82.” In August 2015, during the early days of the Buhari administration, the ECA account stood at $2.2 billion but the financial indiscipline in at both federal, state and local government resulted in the constant withdrawal of funds from the account. 

The amount saved in the account was $3.6 billion in February 2014. According to the Central Bank of Nigeria’s records, Nigeria’s excess crude account fell from $2.45 billion in 2017 to $480 million as of December 2018. In 2019, The Excess Crude account balance dropped further to $480 million. In July 2020 the  ECA had fallen by about 98 per cent within the last 5 years to $72 million. Nigeria has two Sovereign Wealth Funds: the Excess Crude Account and the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA). Note that these two are funded by the savings earned when oil prices are at their peak.