Nigeria’s consumption of petrol has declined by 30% since the removal of the petrol subsidy by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) Managing Director, Mele Kyari, made the announcement during a press briefing in Abuja on Friday.
He said the reduction in fuel demand from 66.7 million litres daily to about 46 million litres currently also meant a 30% reduction in NNPCL’s demand for foreign exchange to import fuel.
“Oil production ramped up to 1.6 million barrels by Wednesday, August 30, from a very poor position of less than 1 million a few months ago,” he said.
The Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, who was also present at the press briefing, said that the government was targeting Nigerians’ funds held in domiciliary accounts in the country and funds held abroad to rejuvenate the economy.
He also said the government disbursed N2 billion each to the 36 States of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) as part of the N5 billion palliative package recently announced to cushion the effects of subsidy removal on Petrol.
He further said that the Federal Government had to hold back on the balance of N3 billion to avoid a spike in inflation figures if the funds were released at once.
Edu, however, clarified that the fund was not part of the proposed $800 million World Bank loan to cushion the effect of the subsidy removal.
Outlining some of his headline policy plans for the nation’s economy, Edun anchored the economic plan of the administration on increasing revenue, effective debt management, and automation of revenue collection to plug leakages and create an enabling environment for private sector players to invest and flourish.
He said the Government will mobilise revenue from improved oil production to earn more forex and create an enabling environment for local and foreign investors.
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