The federal government has hinted that it has secured a World Bank facility worth $800 million to attend to a segment of post-petroleum subsidy palliatives requirement in the country.
This is just as it stated that discussions are on between the present administration and the in-coming government on modalities for the removal of fuel subsidy by the middle of this year.
Speaking with newsmen on Wednesday after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House, Abuja, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, disclosed that the $800 million is the first tranche of palliatives to be disbursed through cash transfers to about 50 million Nigerians, who belong to the most vulnerable category of the society.
According to her, “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 stakeholders’ 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. Ten million households is equivalent to about 50 million Nigerians.”
She added that government was ready to go beyond cash transfer to cushion the effect the subsidy removal will have on Nigerians.
Her words: “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.”
On how much funding was received from the World Bank for the execution of the planned exit, Ahmed 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.”
Asked if the incumbent government had been discussing subsidy removal with the incoming administration, the minister said: “There are a lot of discussions going on at different levels, including with members of the transition committee of the incoming government.
“On the secondary question on exit of fuel subsidy, this is a commitment in the Petroleum Industry Act. There’s a provision that says 18 months after the effectiveness of the PIA that all petroleum products must be deregulated, that 18 months takes us to June 2023.”
