Despite subsidy removal, Nigeria spends $600m monthly on fuel import – Wale Edun

The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun says the FG currently spends $600 million monthly on fuel imports.

Speaking with AIT on August 7, the minister explained that this situation was a key factor in President Tinubu’s decision to remove the fuel subsidy, as the country lacks precise data on domestic fuel consumption.

“The fuel subsidy was removed May 29, 2023, by Mr President & at that time, the poorest of 40% was only getting 4% of the value, and basically, they were not benefitting at all. So it was going to just a few.

Another point that I think is important is that nobody knows the consumption in Nigeria of petroleum. We know we spend $600m to import fuel every month but the issue here is that all the neighbouring countries are benefitting.

So we are buying not for just for Nigeria, we are buying for countries to the east, almost as far as Central Africa. We are buying. We are buying for countries to the North and we are buying for countries to the West.