Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning has disclosed that the Federal Government will remove fuel subsidies in 2022.
She added that in place of the subsidies, government will pay out N5000 monthly transportation grant to very poor Nigerians.
She gave the update while speaking at the launch of the World Bank Nigeria Development Update (NDU) on Tuesday, the 23rd of November.
The Finance Minister said the payments will target 30 to 40 million of the poorest Nigerians.
She added that the final number of beneficiaries will depend on the resources available after the removal of the fuel subsidy.
According to her, “The subsidies regime in the (oil) sector remains unsustainable and economically dangerous.
“Ahead of the target date of mid-2022 for the complete elimination of fuel subsidies, we are working with our partners on measures to cushion the potential negative impact of the removal of the subsidies on the most vulnerable at the bottom 40% of the population.
“One of such measures would be to institute a monthly transport subsidy in the form of cash cushion of N5000 to between 30 – 40 million deserving Nigerians,” she said.
Zainab Ahmed added, “We are very optimistic that the recent developments in the oil sector, such as the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021, hopefully, the full reactivation of the 4 public refineries in the country, and the completion and coming on stream of the 3 private refineries under construction in 2022, would significantly boost contribution from the sector to our economic growth efforts.”
Speaking further, the Minister of Finance said that, “I agree with the report that with the expansion of social protection policies during the pandemic, the government has an opportunity to phase out sub subsidies such as the PMS subsidy while utilising cash transfers to safeguard the welfare of poor and middle-class households.”
She explained that the program is billed for June 2022, however, in one with the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), the initiative will he effected ahead of the planned date.
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