The Federal Government, on Thursday, said the amount spent on subsidising Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, between 2005 and 2021 was N13tn, adding that the country lost N16.3tn to oil theft from 2009 to 2020.
It disclosed this in Abuja through the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative at a policy dialogue on oil swap, co-hosted by NEITI and Policy Alert, an indigenous civil society organisation, with support from the Opening Extractives.
In a presentation by NEITI’s Executive Secretary, Orji Ogbonnaya-Orji, which was made available to our correspondent, he said there was an urgent need to make a decision on the agitation for the removal of fuel subsidies.
He stressed that the full deregulation of the petroleum sector would permanently lay to rest the conversation around oil swaps, adding that the latest findings by NEITI showed the humongous amount spent on subsidising fuel by the government.
“NEITI’s latest policy brief titled, ‘The cost of fuel subsidy: A case for policy review,’ revealed that Nigeria expended over N13tn ($74bn) on fuel subsidies between 2005 and 2021. -PUNCH
