diff --git a/lib/nexthop.c b/lib/nexthop.c
index 405db6a5cb..0984c1a168 100644
--- a/lib/nexthop.c
+++ b/lib/nexthop.c
@@ -442,6 +442,15 @@ void nexthop_copy(struct nexthop *copy, const struct nexthop *nexthop,
 				   &nexthop->nh_label->label[0]);
 }
 
+struct nexthop *nexthop_dup(const struct nexthop *nexthop,
+			    struct nexthop *rparent)
+{
+	struct nexthop *new = nexthop_new();
+
+	nexthop_copy(new, nexthop, rparent);
+	return new;
+}
+
 /*
  * nexthop printing variants:
  *	%pNHvv
diff --git a/lib/nexthop.h b/lib/nexthop.h
index ada7317a58..20401cd581 100644
--- a/lib/nexthop.h
+++ b/lib/nexthop.h
@@ -152,8 +152,12 @@ extern const char *nexthop2str(const struct nexthop *nexthop,
 			       char *str, int size);
 extern struct nexthop *nexthop_next(struct nexthop *nexthop);
 extern unsigned int nexthop_level(struct nexthop *nexthop);
+/* Copies to an already allocated nexthop struct */
 extern void nexthop_copy(struct nexthop *copy, const struct nexthop *nexthop,
 			 struct nexthop *rparent);
+/* Duplicates a nexthop and returns the newly allocated nexthop */
+extern struct nexthop *nexthop_dup(const struct nexthop *nexthop,
+				   struct nexthop *rparent);
 
 #ifdef __cplusplus
 }
diff --git a/lib/nexthop_group.c b/lib/nexthop_group.c
index 4575ad6f70..7b3fb15625 100644
--- a/lib/nexthop_group.c
+++ b/lib/nexthop_group.c
@@ -185,9 +185,7 @@ void copy_nexthops(struct nexthop **tnh, const struct nexthop *nh,
 	const struct nexthop *nh1;
 
 	for (nh1 = nh; nh1; nh1 = nh1->next) {
-		nexthop = nexthop_new();
-		nexthop_copy(nexthop, nh1, rparent);
-
+		nexthop = nexthop_dup(nh1, rparent);
 		nexthop_add(tnh, nexthop);
 
 		if (CHECK_FLAG(nh1->flags, NEXTHOP_FLAG_RECURSIVE))