The federal government has declared that the decision on the removal of subsidy on premium motor spirit (otherwise known as fuel) will be taken only when there are provision of alternative cushioning measures mutually agreed between stakeholders to protect the economically vulnerable members of the population.
Finance Minister, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, at the press briefing marking the end of the 2019 Spring Meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, IMF, in Washington DC, USA, Sunday, said the federal government is yet to arrive at such measures. Consequently, according to her, there is no immediate plan to remove fuel subsidy, contrary to speculations that have led to the emergency of fuel queues in some parts of the country.
The speculations came at the backdrop of the position canvassed by the World Bank/ IMF officials during the meetings demanding the removal of the subsidy and use the resources generated from the exercise to invest and develop the nation’s infrastructure.
But Ahmed stated: “There is no imminent plan to remove fuel subsidy. We are here to discuss with the global community on various policy issues .
“One of the issues that always come up in the report, especially by the IMF as a corporate body is how we handle fuel subsidies. IMF is saying fuel subsidies are better removed so that you can use the resources for other important sectors.
“In principle that is a fact. But in Nigeria, we don’t have plans to remove fuel subsidy at this time because we have not yet designed buffers that can enable us remove fuel subsidy and provide cushions for our people.
So there is no plan to remove fuel subsidy. “We will be discussing with various groups . If we have to, what are the alternatives? We have not yet found viable alternatives .
So we are not yet at the point of removing fuel subsidy.”
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