Nigeria’s wealth fund sees the potential to expand a carbon credits programme with Vitol SA 10-fold in a venture worth $50 million, according to the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), Chief Executive Officer, Aminu Umar-Sadiq.

NSIA, which manages as much as $5 billion in assets, formed a $50 million enterprise with Vitol in April known as CarbonVista. 

The venture announced an agreement to sell the credits to a unit of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund this month.

“I want to say half a billion, but that depends on how well we do with the $50 million” program, he said in an interview, referring to the project’s potential, adding that CarbonVista plans to focus on efficient wood stoves, water purification and re-afforestation projects to earn credits.

African countries from Zimbabwe and Malawi to Gabon and Kenya are seeking to benefit more from the production of the offsets. Each carbon credit represents a ton of climate-warming carbon dioxide or its equivalent removed from the atmosphere or prevented from entering it in the first place.

Under the initial agreement NSIA contributed $20 million and Vitol $30 million. Vitol declined to comment.

The venture plans to get a clean-cooking project, which will use more efficient wood stoves than those currently used to reduce deforestation, underway in the third quarter, according to Umar-Sadiq.

An agreement is being negotiated with a stove manufacturer that will set up a plant in the northern town of Kano and CarbonVista may take a stake in the company to guarantee offtake, he said, declining to identify the firm.