ABUJA – Nigeria may extend a costly fuel subsidy beyond June but the government will work with president-elect Bola Tinubu’s representatives to decide when exactly it will be scrapped, Finance Minister Zainab Ahmed said.
Tinubu, who won the disputed February presidential election, is due to be sworn into office on May 29.
He has made ending the petrol subsidy, which cost $10 billion last year, one of his priorities.
In the 2023 budget, the subsidy was to end in June, but Ahmed said the Petroleum Industry Act could be amended to allow it to continue during the transition to a new government.
“It is not going to be removed now. It won’t be removed before the transition is completed,” Ahmed said according to Reuters.
“We are going to work with the representatives of the incoming government to have a clear defined time plan that will take us towards the removal.”
The fuel subsidy is a politically sensitive issue for Africa’s biggest crude producer. Nigeria imports most of its refined petroleum products but has been trying to revive its moribund refineries.
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