By Akinola Ajibade
World Bank has given Federal Government $800 million ahead of June this year, slated for the removal of petrol subsidies, the Minister of Finance, Zanaib Ahmed has said.
The global banking institution gave out the money in order to scale up national programmes before government remove the subsidies.
Speaking yesterday ( Wednesday) after the cabinet's meeting in Abuja, Ahmed said the money was given to the government to provide social infrastructure for its more than 200million population.
She noted that the government was considering cash transfers and mass transit buses for workers to ease the pain of the subsidy removal on the most vulnerable segment of its population.
She added that the country registered ten million households, a figure, that is equivalent of 50 million people on the list. of vulnerables in the country.
Ahmed said: “Several things are on plan. Some we can start executing quickly while others are not.The latter would take some time before they are implemented"
The World Bank, Ahmed said, was expecting COVID-19 crisis to push over 11 million Nigerians into poverty by 2022, a development which has taking the total number of people classified as poor in the country to over 100 million.
According to her, discussions were going on at different levels of government and with members of the incoming administration of President-elect Bola Tinubu on the subsidy removal.
Recall that Federal Government has set aside N3.36 trillion ($7.3 billion) this year to spend on petrol subsidies until mid-2023, after which it has made no provision for the expense, which cost more than its spending on healthcare and education.
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