GMD, NNPC, Kyari
* Loaf of bread to sell for N1360
* 2022 budget of N1.8tr to be replaced with N2.4tr for cash transfer as social respite
By Jon Egie
Group Managing Director, GMD, of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, NNPC, Malam Meme Kyari,has alerted that a litre of fuel may sell between N320 and N340 in 2022.
He made this disclosure during the presentation of the World Bank Nigeria Development Update, November 2021 edition titled “Time for Business Unusual” in Abuja yesterday.
Kyari said fuel subsidy removal would definitely be achieved in 2022.
According to him, the law provides that by the end of February 2022, the nation should be out of the subsidy regime.
“There will be no provision for it legally in our system, but I am also sure you will appreciate that government has a bigger social responsibility to cater for the ordinary and therefore engage in a process that will ensure that we exit in the most subtle and easy manner,” he said.
On the hike in prices of cooking gas, he said that it was a demand and supply issue as there was a global crunch on supply of gas and many countries were now threatened by lack of supply in December.
He added that the product was not under any subsidy regime and therefore irrespective of where it was produced, would follow the global trend.
Kyari, however, assured that the company was working on increasing local production to meet the needs of consumers.
Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, had at the event said Nigeria will remove fuel subsidy by 2022 and substitute the subsidy with N5000-a-month transportation grant to the poorest Nigerians.
The minister said the grant will be distributed to about 30 to 40 million Nigerians who make up the poorest population of the country.
She said: “The subsidies regime in the oil sector remains unsustainable and economically disingenuous.
“Ahead of the target date of mid-2022 for the complete elimination of fuel subsidies, we are working with our partners on measures to cushion potential negative impact of the removal of the subsidies on the most vulnerable at the bottom 40% of the population.
“One of such measures would be to institute a monthly transport subsidy in the form of cash transfer of N5,000 to between 30 – 40 million deserving Nigerians.”
Meanwhile, analysts have also warned that should petroleum subsidy be removed as alerted, a loaf of bread which now sells at N850 would sell at N1360 going by the almost 60 percent increase on the cost price of a liter of petrol.
Others reasoned that by the proposal and the planned social respite by the FG, the Buhari administration would ineptly have replaced the 2022 budget of 1.8trillion naira with 2.4 trillion naira as N5,000 for 40 million poor Nigerians would translate to N200 billion a month and in a year that implies N2.4 billion.
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