Finance Minister, Zainab Ahmed, has said that the Federal Government will remove fuel subsidy from 2022.
She said it would instead pay N5,000 monthly to some 40 million poor Nigerians.
Speaking Tuesday, Nov. 23, at the launch of the World Bank Nigeria Development Update (NDU), she added that the final number of beneficiaries will depend on the resources available after the removal of the fuel subsidy.
“The subsidies regime in the [oil] sector remains unsustainable and economically disingenuous,” she said.
“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.”
