How Buhari Plans To Spend Subsidy Fund

Nigerians who have been calling for the removal of petrol subsidy over the years may have their wishes granted as President Muhammadu Buhari plans to scrap the policy.

Rather than fueling a policy he considers fraudulent, Buhari intends to appropriate the fund for the provision of free and compulsory primary/secondary education across the country.

Buhari administration is also said to be working on unbundling the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, to make it more efficient in the production and delivery of petrol products.

Quoting a source in the committee, the Vanguard reports that organized labour in the country were consulted by the committee and they made presentations on what should be done over the matter ”The committee also advised adequate provisions should be made for palliatives on free education and social welfare for the unemployed”, a member of the transition committee said.

The source also revealed that Buhari administration is considering the provision of free meals for students to encourage them enroll in schools.

The transition committee constituted by Buhari had earlier recommended the removal of petrol subsidy.

READ ALSO; President Buhari To Remove Fuel Subsidy?

Part of the recommendations by the committee includes ensuring refineries work at maximum capacity, control the allocation of more crude than any refinery in Nigeria and blocking all channels of fund leakages in NNPC “The federal government is keen on plugging all areas of leakages in the corporation and whoever must have caused them must be made to account for such unpatriotic wastage. We don’t know whether that is what you call probe or not”, he said.

There have been calls from concerned stakeholders for NNPC to be transparent in its operations by disclosing the actual amount paid for subsidy.

Payment of petrol subsidy has been a point of argument between the federal government and major oil marketers in the country.

The disagreement led to the artificial petrol scarcity experienced recently across the country.

READ ALSO;Keyamo Raises The Hammer On Madueke And NNPC

A week to the expiration of Goodluck Jonathan’s tenure, the finance ministry reportedly paid a part of the subsidy claims totaling about N131 billion as against the N160 billion claims which was ascribed to exchange rate differential and interest rate charges on banks’ funding for the petroleum products imports.

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