| NIGERIA'S NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX |
The national assembly
of Nigeria today, Tuesday passed a supplementary budget for 2015 amounting
to N574.53 billion ($2.89 billion), the budget seeks to provide for fuel
subsidies to facilitate the importation of petroleum products to satisfy the
demands of motorists across the country.
A member of
the Nigerian Senate said that the national assembly approved an
additional N108 billion than what President Muhammadu Buhari requested
in order to provide subsidies for imports so as to ensure an uninterrupted
supply of petroleum products across the country not only during the Christmas
period but through the New Year and into 2016.
Nigeria currently imports almost all its petroleum
products requirements as its refineries have been down without production for
years due to lack of turnaround maintenance. The governments in power have
largely depended on importation and the process has been fraught with
corruption and mismanagement. In recent times, fuel queues have taken over most
of the major cities in the country as importers failed to supply products as
they wait for payment from the government. Before President Buhari’s
administration, the government’s budgetary provision for oil subsidies was reduced
by about 90 percent due to the drop in world oil prices.
A look at the supplementary budget shows that
more than 90% will go for oil subsidy while a portion of the balance will fund the
military operation against the Boko Haram insurgency in the northeast of the
country.
Watchers are keen to see if the 2016 budget would
make provision for oil subsidies.
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