The Nigerian presidency stated that the country almost tripled its budget to fund for militants in an amnesty program  in its oil-producing heartland, in line with its plan to maintain the peace in the Niger Delta and to support the crude production, Today Nigeria reported.

In the statement, the presidency noted that they will provide $98.47m  for the former militants with an extra .

8m to be added to the budget later.

According to VOA News, Funding of former militants under the 2009 amnesty is essential for maintaining the relative stability in the Delta to prevent future attacks on oil facilities and to avoid the repetition of the 2016 attacks that reduced the crude output by as much as a third.

The government has been negotiating militants to end the attacks that cut Nigeria’s output by 700,000b/d for several months in 2016, decreasing total production at that time to about 1.2mb/d. Production bounced back to 2mb/d in 2017.