Temasek, Singapore’s $215bn state investment company, has signalled a big push into the booming sub-Saharan African market, closing its first major deal in Nigeria yesterday.

The move by Temasek, one of the world’s most influential investors, comes amid burgeoning investments in Africa by Singaporean companies and could encourage other global investors, bankers and officials said.

Although the continent has become a magnet for private equity investors, sovereign wealth funds have played a limited role as they have struggled to find deals big enough to match their size. Temasek has paid $150m to become one of the largest shareholders in Seven Energy, an oil and gas group based in Nigeria. The deal comes only five months after it spent $1.3bn to buy a 20 per cent a stake in several gasfields in Tanzania controlled by London-listed Ophir Energy.