The Director of the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise, Muda Yusuf, said borrowing $800 million from the Word Bank to fund fuel subsidy removal palliative in June is strange.
After last week’s Federal Executive meeting, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, said Nigeria had secured $800 million from the World Bank for post-fuel subsidy removal palliative for Nigerians.
Accordingly to her, over 50 million Nigerians in the social intervention scheme would be the beneficiaries of the funds.
But, in reaction to the minister’s proposal, Yusuf, in an exclusive interview with Media Talk Africa on Monday, explained that in the past, fuel subsidies did not involve borrowing, saying the practice had been that palliatives were funded from the savings from the subsidy removal.
Yusuf insisted that the fuel subsidy removal and palliatives should be left for the incoming Administration to handle.
“First, any conversation on subsidy removal and palliatives should be left for the incoming Administration.
“We have had subsidy-related palliatives, and none involved borrowing. The practice had been that palliatives were funded from the savings from subsidy removal, which makes the current proposition rather strange, ” he stated.
President Muhammadu Buhari had hinted at plans to remove fuel subsidies before the inauguration of the incoming government. Still, the Nigeria Labour Congress and other workers’ unions have heavily criticised this position.
