The President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led administration has released a breakdown of the N15.8 trillion saved from fuel subsidy removal and other reforms over the past three years.
The Minister of Finance, Taiwo Oyedele, disclosed this at a press conference on Wednesday.
Oyedele said N15.8 trillion in savings from the reforms accrued to the Federation Account and was shared among the Federal Government, states and local governments.
The Federal Government received N5.43 trillion, states got N6.52 trillion, while local governments received N3.88 trillion.
He added that the reforms generated N3.12 trillion in other incremental revenues and N11.85 trillion in incremental borrowing.
This gave the Federal Government about N20.4 trillion in additional resources during the period. However, additional government spending stood at about N30.64 trillion.
“The Federal Government had approximately N20.4 trillion in incremental resources.
“Over the same period, additional expenditures amounted to approximately N30.64 trillion. Subsidy removal therefore did not create one large pool of cash available to the Federal Government. It reduced a major fiscal burden and the amount of additional borrowing that would otherwise have been required”, he stated.
Oyedele said N9.39 trillion of the expenditure went to wage adjustments, N9.37 trillion to external debt servicing, N6.47 trillion to infrastructure and N3.14 trillion to electricity subsidies.
Recall that in May and June 2023, Tinubu announced fuel subsidy removal and naira liberalisation, leading to higher fuel prices and fluctuations in the naira’s value.
