Finally! FG Accepts Fuel Subsidy’ll Wolf N5.4Trillion In 2024

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Fuel subsidy will in 2024 guzzle whopping N5.4 trillion, the Federal Government at last admitted after denial that it completely deregulated the product.

Wale Edun, Minister of Finance, disclosed this in a recent presentation of the Accelerated Stabilisation and Advancement Plan (ASAP) report.

He said the ASAP report was designed to address key challenges affecting the reform initiatives and stimulate development in various sectors of the economy.

Said a draft copy of the ASAP presented by Edun: “At current rates, expenditure on fuel subsidy is projected to reach N5.4 trillion by the end of 2024. This compares unfavourably with N3.6 trillion in 2023 and N2.0 trillion in 2022″.

Meanwhile, Heineken Lokpobiri, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Oil, at a recent ministerial briefing to mark President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s one year anniversary, insisted that fuel subsidy had been completely removed.

Claimed he: “I can confirm to you that subsidy is gone; officially, there is no subsidy; I want to make it clear that there is no subsidy in the country today”.

In a contrary view, the President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Festus Osifo, had, in April, revealed that the Nigerian government was currently applying quasi-subsidy on fuel.

Tinubu’s infamous “fuel subsidy is gone” statement served as a springboard for the policy implementation in June 2023, causing the pump price of the product to increase from N250 per litre to over N500.

Since then, the pump price of fuel has continued to surge, hitting an average of N702 per litre in April 2024.

The ripple effect of fuel subsidy and the Naira floating policy in June last year, saw Nigeria’s headline and food inflation catapult to 33.69 percent and 40.53 in April 2024.

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