Yesterday, the federal government gave an answer to those questioning the usage of the funds accruing to the government from the removal of petrol subsidy.
According to them, the money is being used for the development of infrastructure and building of human capital.
The accruals into the federation account have more than doubled since 2023 after President Bola Ahmed announced that “fuel subsidy is gone” during his inauguration speech.
The funds are shared among federal, state and local governments.
The amount shared monthly, which hovered around N9 billion during the Buhari government, is now an average of N1.6 trillion in the past two years.
“Since petrol subsidy removal, we have redirected those funds into targeted interventions, expanding our social safety nets, improving public transportation, and financing critical infrastructure.
“Most importantly, we have strengthened our fiscal buffers, making Nigeria more resilient to external shocks,” President Bola Ahmed Tinubu said yesterday.
Speaking through Minister of State Finance, Nkiruka Uzoka-Anite, the President added: “For far too long, Nigeria’s economy has been burdened by structural inefficiencies, fiscal leakages, and an overreliance on oil revenues.
“But we are not here today to dwell on the challenges of the past. We are here to chart a new course.
“In 2022 alone, Nigeria spent over N4 trillion on fuel subsidies, more than we allocated to capital expenditure.
“This was not only physically unsustainable, it was unjust.
“A subsidy that disproportionately benefited the affluent, encouraged smuggling, and bred inefficiency was neither equitable nor strategic.”
The President spoke in Abuja during the opening of a National Conference on Public Accounts and Fiscal Governance, organised by the Public Accounts Committees (PACS) of the Senate and House of Representatives.
