VP Yemi \u00a0Osinabjo has\u00a0 said that government did not take away subsidy but\u00a0 withdrew the monopoly hitherto enjoyed\u00a0 by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC to allow free market sales<\/p>\n
.\u00a0He said that \u201cat $40 a barrel, there isn\u2019t much of a subsidy to remove.\u201d In a statement tilted \u201cThe Fuel Pricing Debate: Our story\u201d, personally signed by him, the Vice President said that the decision to adopt a new measure was essentially informed by the non availability of foreign exchange for the independent marketers to import fuel.<\/p>\n
His Statement: \u201cThe Fuel Pricing Debate: Our Story \u201cFellow Citizens:\u00a0\u201cI have read the various observations about the fuel pricing regime and the attendant issues generated. All certainly have strong points.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most important issue of course is how to shield the poor from the worst effects of the policy.\u00a0 I will hopefully address that in another note.\u00a0\u201cPermit me an explanation of the policy. First, the real issue\u00a0 is not a removal of subsidy. At $40 a barrel there isn\u2019t much of a subsidy to remove.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn any event, the President is probably one of the most convinced pro-subsidy advocates. \u201cWhat happened is as follows: our local consumption of fuel is almost entirely imported. The NNPC exchanges crude from its joint venture share to provide about 50% of local fuel consumption.<\/p>\n
The remaining 50% is imported by major and independent marketers. \u201cThese marketers up until three months ago sourced their foreign exchange from the Central Bank of Nigeria at the official rate. However, since late last year, independent marketers have brought in little or no fuel because they have been unable to get foreign exchange from the CBN. The CBN simply did not have enough. (In April, oil earnings dipped to $550 million. The amount required for fuel importation alone is about $225million!).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
VP Yemi \u00a0Osinabjo has\u00a0 said that government did not take away subsidy but\u00a0 withdrew the monopoly hitherto enjoyed\u00a0 by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC to allow free market sales…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40441,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n