Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Hajia Zainab Ahmed
By Our Reporter
The Federal Government says it has secured the sum of $800 million from the World Bank under the National Social Investment Programme as part of palliatives to cushion the negative effects of the plan to remove subsidy on the petroleum products by June 2023.
This was disclosed by the Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Hajiya Zainab Ahmed, while speaking with State House correspondents on Wednesday after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
She said the fund which had been secured was ready for disbursement.
Throwing more light on the palliatives that would be put in place ahead of the removal subsidy on the premium motor spirit popularly known as petrol, the minister said: “The second question on exit of fuel subsidy, this is a commitment in the Petroleum Industry Bill. There is a provision that says that 18 months after the effectiveness of the PIA that all petroleum products must be deregulated, that 18 months takes us to June 2023.
“Also, when we were working on the 2023 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and the Appropriation Act, we made that provision to enable us exit fuel subsidy by June 2023.
“We’re on course, we’re having different stakeholder engagements, we’ve secured some funding from the World Bank, that is the first tranche of palliatives that will enable us give cash transfers to the most vulnerable in our society that have now been registered in a national social register. Today that register has a list of 10 million households. 10 million households are equivalent to about 50 million Nigerians.
“But we also have to raise more resources to enable us do more than just the cash transfers and also in our engagements with the various stakeholders, the various kinds of tasks that we have go beyond the requirement of just giving cash transfers. Labour, for example, might be looking for mass transit for its members.
“So, there are several things that we’re still planning and working on, some we can start executing quickly, some are more medium-term implementation.”
Hajia Zainab said $800million had been secured to cushion the effect of subsidy removal. She said “$800 million for the scale up of the National Social Investment Programme at the World Bank and it’s secured, it’s ready for this disbursement”.
She added that the incumbent government had been discussing subsidy removal with the incoming administration, she said, “there are a lot of discussions going on at different levels, including with members of the transition committee of the incoming government”.
Few days back, the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress gave conditional support for the removal of fuel subsidy.
The two labour bodies said that they would only allow the removal of fuel subsidy if the incoming administration of Bola Tinubu takes steps towards the repair and revitalisation of government refineries across the country and allow modular refineries.
According to Labour, failure to do this, they said they would oppose the subsidy removal and mobilise workers and mobilise workers to protest against the decision.
