Fuel Subsidy: CISLAC Queries $800m World Bank Loan

The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, (CISLAC,) has queried the federal government over the World Bank’s $800 million loan to the country, saying Nigeria don’t need to borrow but cut waste.

Recall that the minister of finance, Zainab Ahmed in April, 2023 announced that Nigeria secured a $800 million grant from the World Bank as a palliative to cushion the effect of the proposed fuel subsidy removal by June.

But  in a statement by the executive director of CISLAC, Auwal Musa-Rafsanjani, lamented the attitude displayed by the federal government  towards the country’s crippling debt crisis.

He said that borrowing to fund post-fuel subsidy removal palliatives remain strange, adding that if the fuel subsidy removal process has been suspended as announced by the minister of finance, late April then the government should return the borrowed money.

Mr Rafsanjani said that fears of the country getting another $800 million loan from the World Bank sends waves of worries in the minds of Nigerians as Nigeria’s revenue collection in 2022 stood at N10 trillion, with a debt of about N77 trillion.

He said, “In 2022, Nigeria paid about N7 trillion in fuel subsidy and in 2023 from January to June when the country intends to stop paying the subsidy is N3.6 trillion so if we are paying such whopping amount of money when subsidy is removed, we should have enough savings instead of taking additional loans, we can use the subsidy funds for post fuel subsidy removal.

As a matter of fact, we don’t need to borrow. What we need to do is to cut waste. Just recently, we all saw the aviation minister announced that he bought 10 fire fighting trucks for over 12 billon naira. Is this what we are borrowing to spend on”?.

“Also, we read that the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy announced the approval of 24.2 billion to provide internet facilities at airports and some institutions amongst other places. These are the things we are spending on a few weeks before the end of this administration and this is unacceptable”.

The anti-corruption organisation boss also condemned the reckless spending during the end of this present administration few weeks to go, saying it’s totally unnecessary and it’s a clear sign of diversion of public funds for personal interest and not for the overall good of the country”, he added.

He called on the financial watch-dogs of the country to spotlight all public spendings that have not followed adequate procurement processes.