The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has called on the federal government to invest in transport infrastructure to ease the hardship on citizens, as it plans to end the subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) also known as petrol.
LCCI president, Toki Mabogunje, who stated this in her address at the virtual presidential policy dialogue session, said while the chamber was happy that fuel subsidy would finally be removed after a long-drawn delay, it was imperative for corresponding investment to be made in transport infrastructure to ease movement, create more transport choices, and thereby reduce the cost of transportation and logistics.
Mabogunje said, “Secondly, on the subsidy removal, the estimation of investment in palliatives should be compared with investment in transport infrastructure and see which impacts more on the masses.”
The LCCI president also emphasised the need for the federal and state governments to build the capacity of both the public and private sectors in understanding the opportunities in the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement to explore Nigeria’s local comparative advantage within the free area.
“We expect states to start the development of their state-wide strategies on exploring the terms of the agreement. The government should also speed up the establishment of proposed Special Economic Zones and industrial hubs to support production for the export markets,” she said.
The federal government recently said that petrol subsidy would be removed by July 2022, and that it would give a transportation grant of N5,000 monthly to between 30 and 40 million poor Nigerians for a duration of 12 months.
