Despite the attendant economic hardship, the Federal Government has said that fuel subsidy removal has started yielding dividends, disclosing that over $30 billion foreign direct investments, FDI, had been attracted so far.

Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, said this over the weekend while chatting with the media in Lagos.

He said “because of subsidy removal, Nigeria has attracted over $30billion foreign direct investment in various sectors especially in manufacturing, telecommunications, healthcare, oil and gas among others. These investments are already being realized.

“From the data provided by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, the Nigerian economy had grown by 3.46 per cent in the third quarter of 2023 against 2.4 in the preceding quarter. It was a better performance that was actually anticipated.”

“There is something happening in the economy, it is gradual and it takes time before tangible results are seen by all. Only those who know how the financial system works will be able to see some of these things already happening. In January this year, the Nigeria stock exchange all share index recorded 100.000 point mark.”

While challenging the media to always balance their reportage with the positive things that the government had done in order not to scare potential investors, he noted the various interventions by the Federal Government to cushion the effects of subsidy removal.

Interventions

His words: “To begin with, the monies that were given to the sub-nationals increased significantly. Governors that were earning less, finding it difficult to pay salaries now have more money at their disposal as a result of fuel subsidy removal.

“We are aware of the N35,000 that Labour has been clamouring for, the emphasis would be that by October 1, the President said he is going to give N25,000 wage award to every worker pending the new wage being negotiated with Labour.”