Richard Ginika Izuora
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, has revealed that the Federal Government spent about $1.22 billion or N525.714 billion in payment of subsidies in August, bringing the total spent this year to N2.568 trillion.
The rising costs of sustaining subsidy regime in Nigeria is reportedly straining the budget and draining revenue from the NNPC.
In April, the National Assembly approved a N4-trillion petrol subsidy for this year after the government in January reversed a pledge to end its subsidies to avert protests in the run-up to presidential elections in February 2023.
The NNPCL has not submitted any money to the Federal Government this year due largely to subsidy costs. August’s bill compared with N448.782 billion in July, according to a document NNPC submitted on Friday to the Federation Account Allocation Committee.
Part of the increased cost was down to a bigger daily supply of petrol, which rose to 71.8 million litres, up nearly 10 per cent from July, according to information submitted at the same meeting by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority.
Nigeria’s oil production in August averaged 1.18 million barrels per day, well below her OPEC quota of 1.8 million bpd, due in large part to theft from pipelines that has curtailed production.
