The federal government of Nigeria has secured an $800 million loan from World Bank it says will be used to offset hardships to the most vulnerable in the country when it finally removes the notorious petrol subsidy in June, the finance minister Zainab Ahmed revealed Wednesday after a meeting of the Federal Executive Council.
Zainab says the government was looking to do cash transfers to 10 million poor households or about 50 million persons as post-subsidy palliatives.
“That is the first tranche of palliatives that will enable us to give cash transfers to the most vulnerable in our society that have now been registered in a national social register.
“Today that register has a list of 10 million households. 10 million households is equivalent to about 50 million Nigerians.”
The government says it will also look beyond direct cash credits.
“There are various kinds of tasks that we have to go beyond the requirement of just giving cash transfers. Labour, for example, might be looking for mass transit for its members”.
The labour union itself is bitterly opposed to ending the subsidy fearing inflation that could wipe out current wages.
The government of President Buhari ends on May 29, and some analysts wonder why the government is taking such a massive loan in the twilight of its administration and not leaving the hot-button issue to the next administration.
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