Presidency Awaits National Assembly’s Approval For World Bank’s $800 Million Petrol Subsidy Grant

Federal Government says it is awaiting approval of the National Assembly to begin disbursing the world bank’s $800 million grant for palliative to cushion the harsh effects of the proposed removal of petrol subsidy.

The petrol subsidy regime is scheduled to end in June, after the end of president Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure on May 29.

Finance Minister, Zainab Ahmed, said the world bank’s grant had already received the approval of the Federal Executive Council.

Ahmed revisited the issue on Sunday while answering questions on the sideline of the 2023 spring meeting of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Washington DC.

The minister said that the preparation was ongoing for the building of the social register for the distribution of electronic transfer of the $80 million grant to targetted 50 million vulnerable Nigerians.

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She said that most vulnerable 50 million Nigerians had already captured in the national social register.

The minister also rejected the claim of $23.3 million reported in the dailies for payment to consultants who assisted Federal Government in securing the grant.

According to the minister, federal government has in-house capacity to obtain the grant and does not need to consult anyone for it.

Meanwhile, a non-profit organization, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged Presidenti Muhammadu Buhari to declare his assets and makes it public, before his tenure ends on May 29.

The organization also asks the Vice President, the senate president, the Speaker of House of Representatives, and other high rankig officials to do same.

In its open letter dated April 15, 2023, SERAP said doing so would encourage other public functionaries to declare their assets and make them public.