Nigeria collected N10 trillion in revenue in 2022, according to CISLAC, with a N77 trillion debt.
To mitigate the effects of subsidy elimination, President Muhammadu Buhari has written to the Senate asking for permission to borrow $800 million from the World Bank.
This comes after the Federal Government in April announced a $800 million World Bank grant that was intended to help 10 million households or 50 million poor Nigerians as part of its subsidized palliatives efforts.
According to Zainab Ahmed, Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, the grant is being disbursed in anticipation of the expected elimination of subsidies in June 2023.
In order to advance the palliative program, which takes into account the demand for buses among other factors, Ahmed emphasized that continued interactions with the newly constituted Presidential Transition Council (PTC) and the future administration are ongoing.
Indifferent Attitude
A non-governmental organization, the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), bemoaned the Buhari administration’s “nonchalant attitude” toward the catastrophic financial problem of the nation in light of the World Bank loan request on Friday.
Auwal Musa-Rafsanjani, the Executive Director of CISLAC, questioned the Federal Government on the loan request and added that borrowing to pay for post-fuel subsidy withdrawal palliatives is odd.
The government should return the borrowed funds, he pondered, “because what are we taking the loan for if the fuel subsidy removal process has been suspended as announced by the Minister of Finance after the NEC meeting at the end of April?”
Rafsanjani contended that anxieties about Nigeria receiving another $800 million loan from the World Bank, which would leave the country with a debt of almost N77 trillion and revenue collection of N10 trillion in 2022, send waves of anxiety across the nation’s population.
a screenshot of CISLAC’s Executive Director Auwal Rafsanjani
No Subsidy Elimination?
The planned elimination of the subsidy on petroleum products by the conclusion of the Buhari administration was put on hold by the National Economic Council (NEC) on April 27.
The 36 state governors, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and other government representatives who have been coopted make up the NEC.
The council recently concluded that the moment was not favorable for the move, according to the finance minister who made the announcement of the decision.
She claims that after considering the issue, the NEC decided it couldn’t be removed for the time being.
She continued by saying that everyone concurred on the necessity to keep talking about the issue and do the necessary advance work with states and representatives of the future administration.
