Maintenance / construction of Nigerian road. Nigeria being a large country, removal of this fuel subsidy will help to accelerate the construction and maintenance of Nigerian roads since the monies that had been allied in the construction and maintenance of Nigerian road so far has not been enough due to the number of roads that needs government attention in the north, south and eastern parts of this country.
It will create job opportunities: The Minister of Works Arch Michael Onolememen during his plea to Nigerians on the need to embrace government policy on subsidy removal said that the
subsidy removal will create 3000 jobs in his ministry. This subsidy removal will also engage so many youths in other sectors of the economy. The youth employment intervention will target large numbers of unemployed youths from the poorest population in each state of the federation to FCT. In addition, the level of remuneration will be such that will ensure the self selection of only the poor.
A robust programme structure will be developed to ensure adequate over sight and accountability. During a presidential broadcast on subsidy removal, Mr. President said that he will constitute a board known as “Subsidy Reinvestment Brand”, consulting firms with international reputation will be appointed to provide technical assistance to the board in financial and project management. Relevant MDAs will set up project implementation while an independent body will report directly to the board.
Allows for Nigerian to get fuel from alternative fuel dealers (competition). Subsidy has discouraged competition and stiffed private investment in the downstream sector. Investors have shied away from investment in the development of refineries, petrochemicals, fertilizer plants etc. the subsidy removal of the downstream sector of the petroleum industry will lead to rapid private sector investment in refineries and petrochemicals, which will generate millions of jobs and lead to increased prosperity for our people.
Subsidy has also created huge price disparity, which has encouraged smuggling of petroleum products across the boarder to neighboring countries, where prices are much higher. Nigeria therefore ends up subsidizing consumption of petroleum products in neighboring countries.
There will be an improved fiscal space: The withdrawal of oil subsidy will also offer an opportunity to accelerate investments in critical infrastructure that will directly spur economic growth, job creation and will be consistent with the present administrations transformation agenda to achieve the preset administrations transformation agenda to achieve the vision 20:20:20 which Nigerians are craving for.
Water and Agricultural Development: Subsidy removal will harness Nigeria’s abundant water resources for national development through sustainable food production and water conservation. This component according to the Minister of Agriculture Dr Adewumi Adesina will actualized the current policy thrust towards self reliance for rice and other food production and enable the agricultural value chain transformation to be achieved. He equally stated in a chat will political platform that the revitalization of the irrigation projects will increase local production of rice by over 400,000 tons per year, thereby reducing the importation of food in Nigerian . This will further ensure better food security for the country and improve human nutrition and health and will further enhance job creation by all year round employment generation.
Need to address urban/ rural water supply projects: the proceed from subsidy removal if save and part of it reinvested in water supply projects will increase the level of portable water supply available to about 10 million people. It will also increase the national access to water supply form current levels of 58% to 75% and will contribute to a reduction in the infant mortality rate due to improvement in sanitation and reduction in water borne diseases. This is as submitted by Hon Minister of Water Resource, Mrs. Sarah Ochekpe at Federal Executive Council meeting.
Enhancement of power supply: in a briefing federal ministry of power made by Prof Barth Nnaji on the need for workers to embrace government policies, he stated and I quote “the component of subsidy removal will contribute towards the power sector reforms by improving the generation capacity through hydro and power mants” unquote. The programme will provide counterpart funding for the contraction of the large mammilla hydropower project that will generate an additional 2,6000 megawatts of electric power. The programme will also provide funding to complete a total 17 small and medium hydroelectric power project with a cumulative capacity of 140.273 meg watts. This will provide counterpart funding for PPPs with the private sectors for development of coal power projects in Enugu, Benue, Kogi, with a potential to generate 1000 megawatts of power.
Facilitation of ICT: In one of the workshops jointly organized by ministry of youth development and ministry of communication technology to facilitate the build out critical aspect of ICT infrastructure in Nigeria, the hon. Minister of Communication Technology Mrs. Omobolaji Johnson stated that the proceeds from oil subsidy will be beneficial to youths in the following way:
a. The fund will be used to boost broadband connectivity at the transmission layer of the national infrastructure using failure, which unlike microwave delivers higher broadband sped at the access network, lead to more affordable and better quality of communication services.
b. Will extend ICT connectivity to all tertiary institutions in Nigeria through establishment of e- teaching and e- learning platform
c. The init
iative can generate 70,000 new jobs spread across the six geopolitical zones, over 60% will be concentrated in the north that has higher connectivity advantage.
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