…Reveals how FG will fund N70000 minimum wage
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, has said the country spends $600 million each month on fuel importation.
Edun, who spoke during an interview on AIT’s ‘Moneyline with Nancy’, explained that this was due to the fact that neighbouring countries benefit from imports.
He added it was as a result of this that President Bola Tinubu removed the fuel subsidy since the country did not have accurate data on its domestic fuel consumption.
“The fuel subsidy was removed May 29, 2023, by Mr President, and at that time, the poorest of 40 per cent was only getting four per cent of the value, and basically, they were not benefitting at all. So it was going to be just a few,” the minister said.
“Another point that I think is important is that nobody knows the consumption in Nigeria of petroleum. We know we spend $600 million to import fuel every month but the issue here is that all the neighbouring countries are benefitting.
“So, we are buying not just for Nigeria, we are buying for countries to the east, almost as far as Central Africa. We are buying for countries to the North and we are buying for countries to the West. And so we have to ask ourselves as Nigerians, how long do we want to do that for and that is the key issue regarding the issue of petroleum pricing.”
On how the Federal Government would find the newly approved N70000 national Minimum wage, Edun Wale Edun said the Ministry of Petroleum and the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) have pledged to increase the crude oil output to two million barrels per day to enable the government finance the projects it has in 2024.
He added that with crude oil currently trading at the rate of $80 per barrel, Nigeria would have no problem to get enough funds to finance the new minimum wage.
He said: “On how we will get money to pay the minimum wage, the Ministry of Petroleum through the NNPC has committed to 2 million barrels a day. At $80 dollars per barrel, it takes us out of the woods not just in the short term but in the medium term.”