The Federal Government has obtained $800 million from the World Bank as part of palliatives ahead of removal of subsidies on petroleum products by June 2023.
This was revealed by the Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Hajiya Zainab Ahmed, on Wednesday while fielding questions from State House journalists at the State House Abuja after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting.
She said the fund, secured under the National Social Investment Programme, was ready for disbursement.
The minister said, “There is a provision that says that 18 months after the effectiveness of the PIA that all petroleum products must be deregulated, that 18 months takes us to June 2023.
“Also, when we were working on the 2023 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and the Appropriation Act, we made that provision to enable us to exit fuel subsidy by June 2023.
“We’re on course, we’re having different stakeholder 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. 10 million households are equivalent to about 50 million Nigerians.
“But we also have to raise more resources to enable us to 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.”
When asked how much funding was received from the World Bank for the execution of the planned exit, she 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”.
She said if the incumbent government had been discussing subsidy removal with the incoming administration, she said, “there are a lot of discussions going on at different levels, including with members of the transition committee of the incoming government”.
Last week, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, had said the incoming administration of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu would be left to handle all issues on palliative measures to be introduced to cushion the impending discomfort the stoppage of petrol subsidy would bring if it was finally implemented in June 2023.
Ngige, while reacting to a question on the issue, said, “The subsidy palliatives will be left to the incoming government to implement. We’ll simply hand it over to them.
“Of course, we will give recommendations which they are at liberty to either accept or reject.”
