According to Alhaji Mele Kyari, Group Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian National Fuel Company (NNPC), contrary to popular belief, the previous administration did not include provisions for fuel subsidies in the 2023 budget.
He stated this on Thursday in Abuja, when he met with the APC National Working Committee (NWC) chaired by Sen. Abdullahi Adamu at the party’s National Secretariat.
“There was a subsidy in 2022, but not a single naira was provided to finance the subsidy in 2023.”
“And ultimately, while we held back our fiscal obligations, we still have a net balance of over N2.8 trillion that the federation should have given back to the NNPC.
“For any company, when you have negative N2.8 trillion, there is no company in the whole of Africa that will lend to you, you cannot have receivables.
“The provision of subsidy is there, but absolutely there is no funding for it,” Kyari said, adding that it was only on paper and does not exist.
This, he said, was the true situation of things, adding that the federal government could no longer bear the burden of fuel subsidy.
“If we continue, we will run into defaults and the defaults of NNPC are the defaults of Nigeria.
“Once NNPC goes into defaults and liquidity, it affects every borrowing done by the country, even the sub-nationals. Your lenders will come back to you and say your country can no longer pay,” he said.
The NNPC group chief executive officer stated that the subsidy represented a large sum of money without which the government would be unable to exist and pay its obligations.
