Nigeria’s Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, has explained why the president removed the fuel subsidy.
In a recent interview on AIT’s Moneyline programme, Edun announced that Nigeria spends $600 million each month on fuel imports, News About Nigeria reports.
Edun explained that this situation led President Bola Tinubu to remove the fuel subsidy on May 29, 2023.
The subsidy removal was prompted by the lack of precise data on Nigeria’s domestic fuel consumption and the realisation that neighbouring countries were also benefiting from Nigeria’s fuel imports.
The National Bureau of Statistics reported a decrease in petrol imports to an average of one billion liters per month after the subsidy was removed.
Edun stated that the poorest 40 percent of Nigerians received only four percent of the subsidy’s value.
“Another point that I think is important is that nobody knows the consumption in Nigeria of petroleum. We know we spend $600m to import fuel every month but the issue here is that all the neighbouring countries are benefitting.
“So we are buying not for just for Nigeria, we are buying for countries to the east, almost as far as Central Africa. We are buying. We are buying for countries to the North and we are buying for countries to the West. And so we have to ask ourselves as Nigerians, how long do we want to do that for and that is the key issue regarding the issue of petroleum pricing.”
The Minister stated that the government needs to take action to address this issue as it hinder’s the country economic growth.
