The Federal Government has again clarified its stance on the removal of fuel subsidy, saying it had no plan to do so in the immediate future.
The Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, said this on Sunday at the briefing by the Nigerian delegation on the outcome of their meetings with investors and institutions at the IMF/World Bank meetings in Washington DC.
Ahmed spoke in reaction to IMF’s advice to federal government to remove fuel subsidy, which might have led to panic buying in the country.
Ahmed described the outing in Washington DC as a successful one, which provided Nigeria with the opportunity to review developments in the global economy and proffer potential solutions.
She said that the general advice for Nigeria is to prioritize cost-effective policies that would increase resilience to shocks, boost productivity and raise incomes of the bottom 40 per cent of the population.
Also, the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Sen. Udoma Udo Udoma, said he had discussions with investors and development partners on potential investment opportunities in the country.
According to him, he had discussions on improving the business climate, sensitizing potential investors on incentives and opportunities for investments in Nigeria.
Also, the Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele, spoke about his meeting with Queen Maxima of the Netherlands who is the UN Secretary-General Special Advocate on financial inclusion, saying they reviewed the position of Nigeria in terms of financial inclusion, observing that the rate of inclusion is moving up aggressively and they are very optimistic that in 2020 the country will meet the 80 per cent inclusion target.