Tinubu: 12m Households To Get N8,000 As Palliatives For Six Months

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has said 12m families will get N8,000 over a period of six months to ameliorate the hardships faced by Nigerians as a result of subsidy removal.

In a letter to the House of Representatives read by Speaker Tajudeen Abbas during plenary on Thursday, Tinubu said it was support to enable poor and vulnerable Nigerians cope with the cost of meeting basic needs.

The letter was for approval of additional financing for the national social safety net programme scaled up by the National Assembly.

He said this would have a multiplier effect on about 60 million individuals.

In order to guarantee the credibility of the process, he said digital transfers would be made directly to beneficiaries accounts.

The program was first proposed by former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, but the Ninth Senate could not review the request because the session was already in its last days.

How Tinubu would implement the policy remains unclear, as questions about who would qualify can be difficult to determine in a country without adequate data on citizens and household income. A spokesman for the president did not immediately return a request seeking comments.

The president removed the subsidy on petrol days after assuming office six weeks ago, cutting a policy that has served for decades as a crucial pillar of economic support for millions of citizens.

Tinubu argued that the subsidy regime was benefitting affluent citizens more than their poor compatriots. But social analysts argued that was not a tenable ground to plunge millions further into poverty.

Fuel prices immediately witnessed a mult-fold jump from about N200 to over N550 per litre, with citizens groaning of steep effects of the changes on their ability to survive.

Whereas the N8,000 is equivalent to only 14.5 litres of petrol, some families are nonetheless looking forward to it, hoping it would help cover some expenses as the country’s N30,000 (roughly $37) minimum wage becomes increasingly insufficient for most workers. The government has yet to publish figures of savings from subsidy removal since June 1.