The Federal Government has said the $800 million fund it received from the World Bank for the first round of palliatives are prepared to be distributed in cash to 10 million families or 50 million vulnerable Nigerians.
This is as the government acknowledged the receipt of the $800 million from the World Bank to provide post-petroleum subsidy palliatives for more than 50 million Nigerians before June 2023.
After this week’s Federal Executive Council, which was presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Aso Rock Mansion in Abuja, Zainab Ahmed, Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, disclosed this to State House Correspondents on Wednesday.
“There’s a provision (of the Petroleum Industry Act) that says 18 months after the effectiveness of the PIA that all petroleum products must be deregulated. That 18 month takes us to June 2023.
“Also, when we were working on the 2023 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and the Appropriation Act, we made that provision to enable us to exit fuel subsidy by June 2023.
“We’re on course, we’re having different stakeholder engagements, we’ve secured some funding from the World Bank, that is the first tranche of palliatives that will enable us to 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. 10 million households are equivalent to about 50 million Nigerians,” she said.
When asked how much funding the FG received from the World Bank, the Minister said “$800m for the scale-up of the National Social Investment Programme at the World Bank. And it’s been secured, it’s ready for disbursement”.
However, she noted that the FG must raise more resources to enable it to do more than cash transfers.
According to her, wide-ranging negotiations are underway to deploy non-cash palliatives such as a “mass transit” system for workers’ daily commute.
“So there are several things that we’re still planning and working on, some we can start executing quickly, some are more medium-term implementation.
“There are a lot of discussions going on at different levels, including with members of the transition committee of the incoming government,” she said.