Financial experts have criticized the decision by the President Muhammadu Buhar-led administration, on the eve of its departure, to obtain a World Bank facility worth $800 million to disburse to about 50million vulnerable Nigerians as palliatives to cushion the impact of the expected removal of petrol subsidy by the end of next month.
According to the experts, previous disbursements of cash as palliatives by the administration have been ineffective and lacked transparency. Commenting on the issue, a leading forensic accountant in the country, Professor Richard Mayungbe, said that he was certain that the incoming administration would not agree with the decision of the Buhari government to remove fuel subsidy in June and to disburse the $800million World Bank facility to 50million vulnerable Nigerians as palliatives.
He said: “The Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) stipulates that 18 months after it became law, all petroleum products should be deregulated. This means that the market will determine the prices and the government will cease to pay subsidy. “However, before this can be done, the government must be able to guarantee adequate generation and supply of electricity. This is because, we all (both the rich and the poor) require petrol for our generators. If the electricity problem is addressed, then petrol will become an elitist product.
This means that deregulation will result in discriminatory prices being charged. For instance, there Vice President Yemi Osibajo (left), with late Diya’s wife, Josephine, during his condolence visit to Diya’s home in Lagos… yesterday. will be different prices of petrol for operators of mass transit buses and owners of private cars.” Continuing, he said: “On the $800million that they said will be disbursed to N50million Nigerians, the question is how do we determine that the government register adequately captures Nigerians that are really vulnerable?” Mayungbe averred that the decision by the outgoing administration to remove fuel subsidy on the eve of its departure was a “bobby trap” targeted at the incoming government. “I don’t think President- elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu will allow the fuel subsidy removal arrangement and the payment of cash as palliatives to stay, when he is sworn in,” he stated. Similarly, in his reaction, the Principal Consultant, Henates and Associates, Mr. Henry Atenaga, told Saturday Telegraph that although he supports the removal of petrol subsidy, he did not believe that that the payment of $800million to some vulnerable Nigerians would be an effective way of curbing the impact of the subsidy removal on Nigerians. He said: “From what we have seen, especially under the current government, cash transfers to vulnerable Nigerians as palliatives are not usually transparent. I would suggest that the government should devise a means of ensuring that the $800million is used to support businesses in the transport sector.” Saturday Telegraph reports that the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, told journalists after the FEC meeting on Wednesday that the World Bank’s $800 million facility was the first tranche of petrol subsidy removal palliatives that will be disbursed through cash transfers to about 50 million Nigerians, who belong to the most vulnerable category of the society. According to her: “When we were working on the 2023 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and the Appropriation Act, we made that provision to enable us exit fuel subsidy by June 2023. We’re on course, we’re having different stakeholders’ engagements, we’ve secured some funding from the World Bank, that is the first tranche of palliatives that will enable us give cash transfers to the most vulnerable in our society that have now been registered in a national social register. “Today that register has a list of 10 million households. Ten million households is equivalent to about 50 million Nigerians.”
Source: NewTelegraphNG.com | Read More