CIBN urges government to remove fuel subsidies, deregulate economy

The Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) has urged the Federal Government to remove subsidies, deregulate the economy fully and ensure there are modular refineries

This was disclosed by the President of the CIBN, Dr Bayo Olugbemi, on Thursday at the official inauguration of ‘The CIBN Bankers Hall’ at The Polytechnic, Ibadan, Oyo State, according to NAN.

He stated that the current global economic crisis has also hit poorer nations like Nigeria harder.

What the CIBN is saying

Olugbemi said, “Unfortunately, Nigeria is the worst hit probably because of our mono-economy, meaning we have only one major revenue earning which is petroleum products

“And, of course, world pricing is a function of what the refined products would be. And as we know because of the war between Russia and Ukraine, the dollar price of oil is going up and definitely it has to affect the final products.

“Unfortunately, we are not refining in Nigeria. We have to import using dollars and that is the reason why the government is giving subsidies; but for me as a person, as an economist, a banker and a financial expert in the long run, the best would be to diversify the economy and deregulate.

“There shouldn’t be anything called subsidy because at the end of the day, it doesn’t percolate to you and I. The people at the top are the ones enjoying it.

“Government has no business with subsidies in the long run, it should deregulate the economy fully and ensure there are modular refineries.”

In case you missed it

• Recall Nairametrics reported earlier this week that the World Bank stated that Nigeria’s failure to remove fuel subsidies will lead to opportunity costs in the areas of health, education and infrastructure.
• Marco Hernandez, Lead Economist for Nigeria, World Bank said What we see are the opportunities lost as a result of keeping petrol subsidies in place, we know the fiscal burden which is large and has been increasing,
• “As a result, there are critical development expenditures that could be education, health or social protection, on infrastructure, that could help to promote growth but not taking place because Nigeria is deciding to subsidize petrol.
• “What we put on the table right now are those opportunity costs, how our strategy could be played out so that there could real allocation of expenditure that promotes inclusive and sustainable growth.”