8 September 2011, Sweetcrude, Abuja – Nigeria is to remit $43.3million or about N7 billion to the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), being counterpart funding towards the organisation’s international development fund.
The OPEC fund for international development was established to assist third world countries that do not produce crude oil.
Disclosing this in Abuja, the minister of communication, Mr Labaran Maku, said the amount is part of the outstanding of the $177.7 million pledge made by the country to the Fund in 1976.
The payment, the Minister said, would be made instalmentally between 2013 and 2020.
Justifying the decision to pay the money, Maku said as a prime player in the international community, Nigeria wanted to enhance its influence by meeting up with its international obligations, especially among developing nations of the world as well as stabilise the market for its crude oil.
