Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, has revealed that the Federal Government spends $600 million on petrol importation every month.
The minister said this on Tuesday, during an interview on AIT’s Moneyline programme.
Edun, however, reiterated that there is no petrol subsidy in the 2024 budget.
“The fuel subsidy was removed May 29, 2023, by Mr President, and at that time, the poorest of 40 percent was only getting four percent of the value, and basically, they were not benefitting at all. So it was going to be just a few,” he said.
“Another point that I think is important is that nobody knows the consumption in Nigeria of petroleum. We know we spend $600 million every month on importation but the issue here is that all the neighbouring countries are benefitting.
“So we are buying not for just for Nigeria, we are buying for countries to the east, almost as far as Central Africa, north and west.
“And so we have to ask ourselves as Nigerians, how long do we want to do that for and that is the key issue regarding the issue of petroleum pricing.”
Edun said the nation must take a decisive step to tackle the problem as it hampers economic growth.
While speaking on the welfare of Nigerians, Edun said the current administration’s key priority is to ensure food availability and affordability, hence the recent suspension of tax and duties on the importation of food commodities.
He assured that the measure will not undermine local farmers, as importation will only be permitted after exhausting local supplies.
“There is a concerted effort to ensure that we have homegrown food available. In the short term, apart from what is being distributed from reserves, there is a window that has been opened for importation because the commitment of Mr. President is to drive down those prices now and make food available now,” he said.
“So, one of the conditions for this importation will be that everything available locally in the markets or with the millers and so forth has been taken up. We will have auditors that will check that.”
