On Tuesday, The Federal Government admitted that it had spent about N6.88 Trillion in subsidizing fuel. The report of this huge expense in the Buhari administration, was obtained from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited and the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI).
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, spoke at the second World Energy Day Conference in Abuja, through an official of the Ministry, Dipo Agboola on the theme of the conference which is: ‘Energy Security and Sustainability in Oil and Gas sector.’ stated that the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), would continue to support the opening up of the downstream oil sector to ensure affordable energy for citizens in Nigeria.
The conference that was organised by the National Chamber Policy Centre of the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry, had the Minister as a keynote speaker. He also said the opening up of the industry, will make the cost of energy in Nigeria affordable, considering the huge amount spent on fuel subsidy. The big question here is does this sum of amount have to be spent on fuel subsidy to make the cost of energy affordable for citizens? Another question is despite the huge amount spent for a long time now, are there changes?
Nigerians would rather that the government amends the Trade laws to make provision for Nigeria to process her crude oil within and stop sending the raw materials out at cheap price to receive the finished product at an exorbitant rate. This will increase the country’s GDP and improve the economy.
