Aliko Dangote, the wealthiest man in Africa, was praised by Adesina for contributing $19 billion to the refinery’s construction.
Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank, has criticized the Federal Government’s gasoline subsidy program, claiming that it solely favors the wealthy.
Speaking on Saturday at the presidential inaugural address in Abuja, Adesina said that Nigeria’s economy is being killed by the ongoing subsidization of petroleum goods.
He said that in 2022, fuel subsidies alone cost the continent’s most populated country’s economy $10 billion.
Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, head of the African Development Bank, talks on May 27, 2023, in Abuja at a presidential inaugural lecture.
He said that Nigeria continues to borrow money for purposes for which it shouldn’t be doing so and suggested that this money be used for national development instead.
“Removing the wasteful gasoline subsidy is obviously where we should start. Fuel subsidies in Nigeria help the wealthy at the cost of the poor, he said, fueling their unending fleet of automobiles as well as the government’s.
According to estimates, just 3% of gasoline is used by the poorest 40% of the population.
Fuel subsidies are harming Nigeria’s economy and would cost it $10 billion by 2022, according to the economist. Therefore, Nigeria is taking on debt that it does not need.
The head of the AfDB urged the Federal Government to encourage modular refineries and private-sector refineries for efficiency and competitiveness rather than spending billions on crude oil.
He claims that the action is required to lower petroleum product pump costs.
He praised the government of President Muhammadu Buhari for recently launching the Dangote Refinery in Lagos, claiming the undertaking would transform Nigeria’s economy.
Aliko Dangote, the wealthiest man in Africa, was praised by Adesina for contributing $19 billion to the refinery’s construction.
Reduce the expense of governance
The former agricultural minister spoke against increasing government spending while presenting his speech.
Adesina said that the cost of governance should be “dramatically reduced to free up more resources for development” since it is too expensive.
The AfDB President believes that since Africa’s most populous country invests so little in development, it may be one of the nations with the lowest global human capital indices.
In order to lessen the pressures on the Federal Government, he advocated for a change in the statistics and urged the Nigerian authorities to depend more on the private sector for infrastructure development.
Tax Income
Adesina urges the federal government to improve the country’s tax revenue collection while speaking about the tax push.
He specifically requests that the government switch from tax exemption to tax redemption and that proper royalties and taxes be paid by multinational corporations. Additionally, he wants tax leakages in revenue collection to be stopped by Nigerian authorities.
The head of the AfDB urges the Nigerian government to give the people with the necessities, noting that merely hiking taxes is insufficient.
“As a result, Nigerians now pay the highest implicit taxes in the whole world. The government must provide top-notch public services to uphold the social compact.
“How and what is provided, not how much is gathered, is what matters. “Nations that develop more successfully have efficient governments that uphold the social contract with their citizens,” he said.
