Hardship: States get N570bn grant

The Federal Government has released N570bn to the 36 states to expand livelihood support to their citizens, President Bola Tinubu announced on Sunday.

He also revealed that Nigeria spends N2tn monthly to import Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, and Automotive Gas Oil, otherwise known as diesel.

Tinubu stated this during his nationwide broadcast to Nigerians, as he disclosed that N9.1tn was accumulated as total fiscal revenue to the Federal Government’s coffers during the first half of 2024, marking a significant increase from what was earned by the previous administration.

“Also, more than N570bn has been released to the 36 states to expand livelihood support to their citizens, while 600,000 nano-businesses have benefitted from our nano-grants. An additional 400,000 more nan0-businesses are expected to benefit,” the President stated.

He noted that despite Nigeria’s abundant oil and gas resources, his administration met a country that was dependent only on oil, neglecting its gas resources while subsidising the cost of fuel.

As a result, he said his administration invested in Compressed Natural Gas to change the narrative.

“Fellow Nigerians, we are a country blessed with both oil and gas resources, but we met a country that had been dependent solely on oil-based petrol, neglecting its gas resources to power the economy. We were also using our hard-earned foreign exchange to pay for and subsidise its use.

“To address this, we immediately launched our Compressed Natural Gas Initiative to power our transportation economy and bring costs down. This will save over N2tn a month, being used to import PMS and AGO and free up our resources for more investment in healthcare and education,” Tinubu stated.

He said his administration would distribute one million kits of extremely low or no cost to commercial vehicles that transport people and goods, and who currently consume 80 per cent of the imported petrol and diesel.

 “We have started the distribution of conversion kits and setting up of conversion centres across the country in conjunction with the private sector. We believe that this CNG initiative will reduce transportation costs by approximately 60 per cent and help to curb inflation,” Tinubu disclosed.

While licensed individuals have been importing diesel into Nigeria, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited remains the sole importer of petrol into the country.

Despite being the largest oil producer in Africa, Nigeria depends on imported petroleum products due to low refining capacity.

Also during the broadcast on Sunday, Tinubu said his administration was ready to listen to and address the concerns of protesters involved in the nationwide protest that started on August 1, 2024.

On the revenue increase in the first half of the year, the President said it was due to efforts in blocking leakages, introducing automation, and mobilising funding creatively, all without placing an additional burden on the people.

 He said productivity in the non-oil sector is gradually increasing, reaching new levels and capitalising on the opportunities presented by the current economic environment.

He said, “In the past 14 months, our government has made significant strides in rebuilding the foundation of our economy to carry us into a future of plenty and abundance.

“On the fiscal side, aggregate government revenues have more than doubled, hitting over N9.1tn in the first half of 2024 compared to the first half of 2023 due to our efforts at blocking leakages, introducing automation and mobilising funding creatively without additional burden on the people.

“Productivity is gradually increasing in the non-oil sector, reaching new levels and taking advantage of the opportunities in the current economic ambience,” Tinubu said.

The President explained that there had been a reduction in Nigeria’s debt burden, with revenue on debt service declining from 97 per cent in 2023 to 68 per cent in 2024.

He said the country has cleared legitimate outstanding foreign exchange obligations of about $5bn “without any adverse impact on our programmes.”

According to the President, the debt reduction has provided the country with greater financial freedom, allowing for increased spending on essential social services such as education and healthcare.

He said this financial relief has also enabled state and local governments to receive the highest allocations from the Federation Account in the nation’s history.

“Coming from a place where our country spent 97 per cent of all our revenue on debt service; we have been able to reduce that to 68 per cent in the last 13 months.

“We have also cleared legitimate outstanding foreign exchange obligations of about $5bn without any adverse impact on our programmes. This has given us more financial freedom and the room to spend more money on you, our citizens, to fund essential social services like education and healthcare,” he stated.