No oil subsidy for Nigerians yet – Minister

Nigeria’s Petroleum Resources Minister, Diezani Allison-Madueke, says the Government of Nigeria is yet to fix a date for the implementation of its plan to remove subsidy on petroleum products, the Daily Trust reported November 23, 2011

According to the publication, Allison-Madueke told members of the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Upstream at the National Assembly in Abuja that, the Federal Government would spend $2 billion for the repairs of pipelines damaged by Niger Delta militants and illegal bunkerers.

The disclosure, according to the publication, contradicted Nigeria Government’s plans to commence the removal from January, 2012.
The Minister, according to the publication, said the ministry was working on a National Gas Policy that would make gas the preferred energy for use in Nigerian homes.

In the Senate, however, Allison-Madueke failed to convince members of the Senate joint committee investigating the over spending of N1.3 trillion in 2011 as subsidy fund against the budgeted N250 billion and also failed to explain who authorised the payment of N251 billion subsidy on kerosene, when it was not budgeted for.

The minister, who appeared before the Senate Joint Committee on Petroleum, Finance and Appropriation investigating the mismanagement of fuel subsidy funds, admitted that there was nothing wrong with fuel subsidy but that the management of the subsidy failed, the publication disclosed.

The apex bank suspected that some of the importers “may be playing games vetting their documents before they can access foreign exchange to bring sanity into the subsidy management scheme,” the Daily Trust quoted the Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Tunde Lemo.

In Ghana however, Ghana’s Finance Minister, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor, says the government has subsidised ex-pump price of petroleum products to the tune of GH¢267.61 million as at September 30, 2011 from the beginning of the year and has attributed the cost of subsidy to the rising crude oil prices on the world market.

By Pascal Kelvin Kudiabor