The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) says it will conduct a research to assess actual petrol consumption in Nigeria, emphasizing that the high PMS consumption numbers published by several government institutions were incorrect.
Executive Secretary of NEITI, Ogbonnaya Orji, revealed this to journalists in Abuja on the sidelines of the Stakeholders Validation Workshop on the 2022 Annual Progress Report for Nigeria’s Extractive Industries.
Orji stated that NEITI knew that subsidy removal would throw up a lot of other issues, adding that “one of those issues that we know will happen is the actual consumption figure (of petrol).”
“For a very long time, my disposition has been for the removal of subsidy. And this government, right from day one has taken that bold step. There shouldn’t be any going back.
“We should move forward from there and then put in place a robust arrangement that will show a clear departure from the way and manner we have operated under subsidy. Nigerians want to see what will change when the subsidy is no more.
“And we have highlighted this because we know that subsidies put a lot of impediments on transparency and accountability in the management of revenues from the oil and gas industry over the years,” he stated.
The NEITI boss, however, stated that some steps should be taken to cushion the immediate effects that subsidy removal has brought on the Nigerian people especially, the vulnerable, and less privileged, who were spread across the working and non-working class.
“We just need the impact of this subsidy removal to reflect in the improvement of the general well-being of Nigerians and in our social infrastructure,” he stated.
