Financial experts have criticized the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), over his decision to obtain a World Bank facility worth $800 million on the eve of his departure from office.
The facility is expected to be disbursed to about 50 million vulnerable Nigerians as palliatives to cushion the impact of the expected removal of petrol subsidy by the end of May.
Recall that, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, 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.
Ahmed said, “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.”
NewTelegraphng reported that certain experts have condemned the procurement, maintaining that previous disbursements of cash as palliatives by the administration have been ineffective and lacked transparency.
One of such financial experts, is a leading forensic accountant, Professor Richard Mayungbe, who 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 the $800million World Bank facility to 50 million vulnerable Nigerians as palliatives.
Mayungbe also 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.
He said, “The Petroleum Industry Act 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 will be different prices of petrol for operators of mass transit buses and owners of private cars.
“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?
“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.”
Similarly, the Principal Consultant, Henates and Associates, Henry Atenaga, stated 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.
Atenaga 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.”
