The Federal Government has secured the sum of $800 million from the World Bank under the National Social Investment Programme as part of palliatives to cushion the negative effects of the plan to remove subsidies on petroleum products by June 2023.
Hajiya Zainab Ahmed, the Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, announced this on Wednesday while fielding questions from State House reporters after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
She said the fund which had been secured was ready for disbursement.
When asked about the palliatives that would be put in place ahead of the removal of subsidy on the premium motor spirit popularly known as petrol, the minister said: “The second question on the exit of fuel subsidy, this is a commitment in the Petroleum Industry Bill. There is a provision that says that 18 months after the effectiveness of the PIA that all petroleum products must be deregulated, and 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 to give cash transfers to the most vulnerable in our society that have now been registered in a national social register. Today that registers have 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 to go beyond the requirement of just giving cash transfers. Labor, 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.”
