Minister of Finance demands removal of fuel subsidy

The Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, has called for the removal of fuel subsidy, lamenting that the maintenance was hurting the economy and impeding investments in human capital development.

Ahmed yesterday in Abuja at the launch of the Nigeria Development Update NDU 2022 report by the World Bank, explained that if subsidy was not in the budget, there would be no need to borrow money to finance it.

The minister said 4.5 trillion Naira spent on subsidies would have been invested in health and education, recalling that subsidy removal was to take effect from June 2022, but was moved by additional 12 months to 18 months.

In his remarks, the Governor of Anambra State, Charles Soludo declared that the remover was long overdue, adding that if 3trillion Naira is saved, each state of the federation could be given about 50 billion to fix roads.

Soludo said subsidy can be brought down to the state level so that each governor decides the best way to go about it.