The group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited, Malam Male Kyari, has said that after the much talked about fuel subsidy removal in 2022, the price of the product per litre may range between N320 to 340.
The MD said this during the 2021 edition of World Bank’s Nigeria Development Update.
Investors King had earlier reported the planned removal of subsidy as clarified by the Minister of Finance.
According to the Minister, the oil subsidy regime is budgeted to end in July. Effective from then, the federal government will no longer pay any subsidy on oil.
Zainab Ahmed, the Minister of Finance who was also at the update buttressed this and reveal the plan of the federal government to assist poor Nigerians to adapt to the transition.
She said that between 30 million to 40 million poor Nigeria will get N5000 per month as a transportation subsidy after the fuel subsidy is removed.
“Ahead of the target date of mid-2022 for the complete elimination of fuel subsidies, we are working with our partners on measures to cushion the potential negative impact of the removal of the subsidies on the most vulnerable at the bottom 40 per cent population. One of such measures would be to institute a monthly transport subsidy in the form of cash transfer of N5000 to between 30-40 million deserving Nigerians,” she said.
If the federal is therefore going to give N5000 to 40 million people the total cost in a month will stand at 200 billion. Giving the same amount of grant to 30 million people will equally cost 150 billion in a month.
Both figures are higher than the amount Premium Times has speculated that the government spends on fuel subsidy in a month. According to a Premium Times report, 103.5 billion is the likely amount the Federal Government spends on oil subsidy in a month.