The Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, has stated that the Federal Government has reaffirmed that it has no plans to remove fuel subsidy for now.
She made this known at the briefing by the Nigerian delegation on the outcome of their meetings with investors and institutions at the International Monetary Fund (IMF)/World Bank meetings in Washington DC.
Ahmed spoke on the background of IMF’s advice to Nigeria to remove fuel subsidy, which might have led to panic buying in the country.
“There is no imminent plan to remove subsidy. IMF said that fuel subsidy is better removed so that we can use the resources for other important sectors.
“In principle, It’s a good suggestion, but in Nigeria we don’t have any plans to remove fuel subsidy at this time because we have not yet designed buffers that will enable us remove the subsidy and provide cushions for our people.
“So there is no plan to remove fuel subsidy. We will be working with various groups to find an alternative if we have to remove it. We are not yet at the point of removing fuel subsidy yet,” she said.