The Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, has revealed that the Federal Government led by President Bola Tinubu currently spends a minimum of $600 million monthly on fuel imports.
Edun, who is also the Coordinating Minister of Econonmy, said this while speaking with AIT on Wednesday, August 7, 2024.
According to the minister, this situation was a key factor in President Tinubu’s decision to remove the fuel subsidy. He argued that the country lacks precise data on domestic fuel consumption.
He said;
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“The fuel subsidy was removed May 29, 2023, by Mr President, and at that time, the poorest of 40 per cent was only getting four per cent of the value, and basically, they were not benefitting at all. So it was going to just a few.
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“Another point that I think is important is that nobody knows the consumption in Nigeria of petroleum. We know we spend $600m to import fuel every month but the issue here is that all the neighbouring countries are benefitting.
“So we are buying not for just for Nigeria, we are buying for countries to the east, almost as far as Central Africa. We are buying.
“We are buying for countries to the North and we are buying for countries to the West. And so we have to ask ourselves as Nigerians, how long do we want to do that for and that is the key issue regarding the issue of petroleum pricing,” he added.
The Minister’s comment has further raised eyebrows on the true status of whether subsidy was indeed removed or not following an announcement by President Tinubu on inauguration day.
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