Following the removal of fuel subsidy, about 7.1 million poor Nigerians would become poorer if the government of Nigeria failed to provide palliatives for them, the World Bank has warned.
Development Diaries reports that the bank made this known during the launch of the June 2023 edition of the Nigeria Development Update (NDU).
The NDU, a biannual World Bank report series, assesses recent economic and social developments and prospects in Nigeria and places these in a longer-term and global context.
According to the bank, the recent removal of the fuel subsidy and the foreign exchange management reforms are critical steps to address long-standing macroeconomic imbalances and have the potential to establish a solid foundation for sustainable and inclusive growth.
However, the bank noted that 89.8 million Nigerians were living in poverty at the start of 2023, and between January and May, an additional four million citizens fell into poverty, bringing the total to 93.8 million, as a result of the country’s high inflation rates.
According to figures from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the headline inflation rate increased to 22.41 percent in May 2023, relative to April 2023 headline inflation rate, which was 22.22 percent.
This figure represents the highest in about 19 years. And in its 2022 National Multidimensional Poverty Index report, the NBS disclosed that 133 million Nigerians were multi-dimensionally poor.
In his inaugural speech, President Bola Tinubu announced the removal of fuel subsidy, resulting in an increase in pump prices of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), popularly called petrol.
One litre of petrol is now at least N488 nationwide.
Transport fares have jumped by over 100 percent, depending on the routes, as Nigerians lament the high cost of the product.
However, till date, Tinubu’s administration has not come up with a concrete plan for interventions for vulnerable Nigerians to cushion the effect of subsidy removal.
Instead, the president, in his Eid-el-Kabir message, reiterated his call on Nigerians to make sacrifices for the prosperity of the country.
‘We have to make the sacrifices and that is clear, we have to’, he said.
Since politicians and other public officeholders are Nigerians, too, it is crucial to emphasise that the burden of sacrifice is shared by all Nigerians.
For example, the funding of the presidential fleet rose to N81 billion under former President Muhammadu Buhari; while the Senate president and the state governors allocated huge budgets for their cars and private jet rentals.
In fact, instead of holding meetings in Nigeria, these public officeholders prefer to travel abroad with many aides, wasting state resources.
Development Diaries calls on the president and state governors to immediately provide interventions that will cushion the effect of the fuel subsidy removal on the masses.
We also call for a reduction in the number and pay of political officeholders and their aides.
Photo source: Carsten ten Brink
