Following the decision of the federal government to retain subsidy payment for the next eighteen months, Special Adviser to the President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina has argued that the country may be left with no other choice than to continue borrowing to shoulder its fiscal overhead.
Nigeria’s Public Debt rose to N38 trillion as of September 30th, 2021. This is according to the latest data obtained from the Debt Management Office.
Nigeria’s public debt is now N5 trillion up 15 percent from the N32.9 trillion reported in December 2020. This is the highest debt profile ever recorded dating back to 2010 when the data was being collated.
The country has also now added N9.3 trillion to its public debt profile since the start of this decade in 2020 which is just two years at an average of N4.5 trillion annually. This compares to the N2.2 trillion yearly average in the decade ending December 2019
Speaking on a television program on Wednesday, Adesina explained that Nigeria would have to pay a price to continue subsidizing Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol.
It would be recalled that an ad-hoc committee, which was set up by National Economic Council, NEC, headed by Governor El-Rufai that included members of the executive arm of government recommended full deregulation of PMS prices by February 2022 — raising the price by about N130/140 per litre to N302/litre.
NEC’s position came on a day former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, Rtd, advised the Federal Government against withdrawal of fuel subsidy, saying any increase in the pump price of petrol would push more Nigerians into poverty.
It was gathered that the decision to retain the subsidy may cost both the federal and state governments over N1 trillion in the next six months being estimated deductions to be made from the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) as fuel subsidy payments.
Reacting, Adesina said the decision of the Federal Government to propose an extension of fuel subsidy removal by 18 months was not political.
