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Nigeria Poised to Save $28 Billion After Ending Fuel Subsidies
epa10675691 Afghan vendors sell bread on a roadside on the eve of the World Food Safety Day in Kabul, Afghanistan, 06 June 2023. According to report The Hunger Hotspots released on 29 May by the United Nations, 22 countries will experience an increase in acute food insecurity over the next six months. Afghanistan, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, and Yemen are at the highest alert level, while Haiti, the Sahel, and Sudan are at the highest concern levels. Low to middle income countries will be driven further into crisis due to unusually high global food prices. Pakistan, the Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Syria, and Myanmar are also hotspots of very high concern. The UN has called for urgent humanitarian action to save lives and livelihoods and prevent starvation and death in hotspots where acute hunger is at a high risk of worsening from June to November 2023. EPA-EFE/SAMIULLAH POPAL
Nigeria will save more than 21 trillion naira ($28 billion) in two years after scrapping gasoline subsidies and allowing its currency to weaken, according to the World Bank.
It forecast Africa’s biggest economy will expand 4% from 2024 should it implement urgently required reforms. The continent’s most populous nation has for years resisted calls by the World Bank to do away with its costly gasoline subsidies and myriad exchange rates that have stymied growth.
Africa’s largest crude producer should take further steps to increase non-oil revenue, lower inflation and expand the social safety net to protect the poor and most vulnerable, the World Bank said.
“The government could propose a compact with Nigerian citizens that directly links the phased-out subsidy to compensatory cash transfers,” it said.
Nigeria’s Leader Thrills Markets With Week of Radical Change
More from the report:
- Inflation will accelerate to an average of 25% this year, compared with 18.8% in 2022
- Debt service as a proportion of federal government revenue will drop to 76% by 2025 from 121% this year.
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