Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, said Tuesday that it will be more appropriate for the government to begin the implementation of its fuel subsidy policy in the second quarter of the year.
Mrs Ahmed disclosed this while speaking during an interview with Arise TV at the ongoing World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday.
The minister noted that the country needs to exit the fuel subsidy regime because it is a very significant contributory factor to revenue loss.
“You can look at it in two ways, the payments made are revenues that would have come to the government but don’t because it is being spent on fuel subsidy.
“Also, where there is not enough revenue to buy the refined petroleum products, we have to borrow to buy the products, so, if we take that out, that is over N3 trillion, it’s a significant relief if we do not incur any more than that number that we projected for 2023,” she said.
Responding to why the petroleum subsidy was…
