…Says fuel consumption drops from 67m to 40m litres per day
…Seeks legislative support to strengthen local automobile production
By Abdullahi Mohammed, Abuja
The National Economic Council (NEC) said Thursday that it is considering a N702 billion cost of living allowance for civil servants as part of interventions to mitigate the effects of the removal of fuel subsidy.
Addressing State House correspondents at the end of the maiden NEC meeting chaired by Vice President Kashim Shettima, Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi state said the intervention includes a recommended sum ranging from N23.5 billion to N45 billion per month as petroleum allowance for civil servants.
“The NEC had received recommendations on the various ways and means that the country can use whatever increases that we have in the revenue to mitigate the impact that this is going to make on the lives of our workers.
“And so they recommended that there should be a consequential adjustment, estimated at N702.92 billion as part of the allowances that should be given as petroleum allowance to all workers and as well as a N23 or N25 billion monthly offer to cushion the effect on workers.
“In addition to the palliative, government looked at all the issues, the challenges and problems holistically and set up a small committee of council to review and come up with a term of reference to organise areas specifically where this palliative can come from and how it will be dispensed to alleviate the problem of workers and other vulnerable groups.
“Members of the committee include the Governor Kebbi State as Chairman; Anambra representing the South-East geopolitical zone; Governor of Benue, North-Central; Governor of Kaduna, North-West; Governor of Cross River, South-South; Oyo, South-West; and the Bauchi State Governor representing the North-East.
“Other relevant agencies in the committee are the Budget Office, representatives of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation, Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Trade Union Congress of Nigeria and the Nigeria Labour Congress and Rukayat El-Rufai.
“We will sit within two weeks to come up with a recommendation to NEC for a holistic decision that will be taken immediately to alleviate the problem that is being encountered by the removal of the subsidy,” he said.
Also speaking, Governor Umar Radda of Katsina state the council also discussed palliative measures to mitigate the effect of subsidy removal through the NG-Cares programme.
“As you are aware, the NG-Cares Programme is a programme that started 2021 running up to 2024. And then is to provide some emergency on palliatives, social needs on so many issues ranging from small farmers holders. MSMEs and other interventions. It’s a $750 million from the World Bank assisted funds and it has commenced long time ago,” he said.
He said some of the recommendations that were made include that states should create platforms with strong capacity to handle the implementation of palliative for poor and vulnerable individuals, household and farmers, including boosting economy of local operators.
“Additional funding can be sourced from the federal government, World Bank, Development partners as well as Nigerian private sector.
“In specific, the World Bank can be approached for additional financing on NG-Cares programme. Discussion can start as soon as possible. So these are the recommendations that were made. And the Economic Council will pursue these recommendations for the benefit of the Nigerian, vulnerable and the poor,” he said.
In his remarks, Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun state said stakeholders in the oil and gas industry briefed the council on how to reduce the pump price of petrol.
He said the industry experts urged the federal government to reduce the taxes on petroleum products being collected by the NPA, NIMASA and other government agencies.
The governor the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mr Mele Kyari said the price of fuel in neighbouring countries has jumped up following subsidy removal.
He said the neighbouring countries have been relying on subsidised fuel from Nigeria.
He said the NNPCL boss suggested that Nigeria should beging to export fuel to its neighbours with less capacity to import the product.
“The GCEO of NNPC says that the position of an NNPC now used to be in the active trade of actually trading petroleum products to the neighboring countries. Since they do not have the wherewithal to import petroleum products.
“We decided that we would have a subcommittee of NEC on oil and gas that will look at the issues have been brought to the fore or by the marketers, by the regulator, by NNPC to ensure that we harmonize report back to NEC and if NEC adopts it we will present it to Mr. President,” he said.
The governor said the price of fuel would drop by N40 when the local refineries begin to work at full capacity.
Also speaking, Governor Alex Otti of Abia state said a presentation by the National Automotive Design and Development Council revealed that about six states in the country including Lagos, Ogun, Anambra, Enugu, Akwa Ibom, Kaduna and Kano are already benefiting from domestic production of vehicles or assembling of vehicles by Nigerian companies.
He listed the companies to include INNOSON, Maikano, Dangote Peugeot, Peugeot automobile of Nigeria, Stallion Hundai, Honda, Elizade/Toyota, Coscharis and Ford, Kojo Motors and Jet Systems motors.
“At the moment, about 50,000 jobs have been created by this simple action of either assembling vehicles in Nigeria or producing them Nigeria, adding that this can increase to one million, with federal government supports.
“It is a great feat that some of these companies have gone into the manufacturing or assembly of electric vehicles and vehicles powered by CNG – compressed natural gas. The impact of this is that the pressure on the price of petroleum products particularly PMS will be reduced. The more we use electric vehicles and CNG powered vehicles.
“Initially, it had reduced the consumption from about 66, 67 million litres a day to just about 40 million. And as time goes on, the consumption will continue to go down,” he said.
Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi state said the council also discussed the issue of flood disasters across the country.
He said to alleviate the plight of victims of the unfortunate flood disaster across affected states in the federation, it was recommended that the federal government should intervene by releasing necessary funds without further delay.
“This will assist with addressing the needs of the victims as well as offset debts incurred by some states in their attempt to assist the victims,” he said.
He said members of the council have also been directed to liaise with the Office of the Vice President, the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, private sectors and other well-meaning Nigerians to help tackle flooding in the country.