Soludo: Subsidy should have been removed ‘yesterday’.
Professor Chukwuma Soludo, the governor of Anambra State, has spoken out against the continuation of fuel subsidies in Nigeria.
How much is currently being spent on subsidies?
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Limited revealed in its May 2022 report to the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee, FAAC, that payments for petrol subsidies cost the Federation Account N1.217t in the first five months of 2022.
In just five months?
Yes, January to May. A breakdown of the deductions so far this year shows that N270.83b was deducted in January, N210.38b in February, N219.78b in March, and N245.77b in April. The Corporation revealed that N271b was deducted from its planned remittance for May, increasing the total deductions for the year to N1.217t for petrol subsidies.
How much was budgeted for it this year?
The National Assembly had earlier this year given the Federal Government authorization to spend N4t on fuel subsidies in 2022. Soludo, who spoke at the World Bank group’s Nigeria Development Update (NDU) launch in Abuja yesterday, said the remedies to Nigeria’s challenges were simple and not far-fetched.
