Why FG Will Remove Fuel Subsidy, Pay Nigerians 5,000 Grant- Zainab Ahmed

The Minister for Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, has unveiled the Federal governments plan to remove fuel subsidy.

According to the minister, fuel subsidy will be removed from June, 2022 and poor Nigerian swill get a compensatory grant of N5,000 only.

She said although the removal is set for June 2022, the federal government hopes to do it before June — in line with the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).

Ahmed while speaking at the launch of the World Bank Nigeria Development Update (NDU) on Tuesday, November 23, said the N5,000 naira ‘transport grant’ will target about 30 to 40 million Nigerians who make up the poorest population of the country.

“The subsidies regime in the [oil] sector remains unsustainable and economically disingenuous.

“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 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 transfer of N5,000 to between 30 – 40 million deserving Nigerians.”

“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.

“I agree with the Report that with the expansion of social protection policies during the pandemic, the government has an opportunity to phase out subsidies such as the PMS subsidy while utilizing cash transfers to safeguard the welfare of poor and middle-class households.”