The withdrawal of gasoline subsidies, according to the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority’s chief investment officer, will increase the amount of cash available. The NSIA anticipates receiving $100 million to $200 million from the government this year.
Bola Tinubu, the newly elected president, promised to end gasoline subsidies, a well-liked but expensive perk that has drained millions of dollars yearly from government coffers. The decision will boost NSIA’s finances by allowing more oil income to reach the government, said Kola Owodunni, the organization’s chief investment officer, during a panel at the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute conference in London.
According to Owodunni, NSIA received about $50 million last year after receiving almost nothing in 2021. Overall, Nigeria’s finances have been limited throughout the last eight years by myriad challenges facing Africa’s most populous nation and biggest oil exporter, including some years of low crude prices, high subsidy costs, the COVID-19 pandemic and, recently, oil theft that limited output.
Owodunni said an oil reform law signed by previous president Muhammadu Buhari in 2021 had changed the formula of what the NSIA would receive.