Nigeria: Subsidy Return Will Reverse Economic Gains - Minister

What the report says

Nigeria’s Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, has warned against restoring petrol subsidies, arguing that such a move would weaken the country’s fiscal position and erode the gains of President Bola Tinubu’s economic reforms. The comments were reported by Vanguard and distributed by AllAfrica, based on a statement from Idris’s media aide, Rabiu Ibrahim, in Abuja on Monday.

In an op-ed published the same day, Idris said bringing back fuel subsidies would recreate the pressures Nigeria faced in 2022, including scarcity, market distortions and incentives for arbitrage. He framed the issue as a trade-off between subsidy spending and other public priorities such as student loans, state and local government allocations, roads, rail, power, security, healthcare, education and social protection.

The minister also cited earlier fiscal strain, saying Nigeria spent about $10 billion on fuel subsidies in 2022 amid lower oil production and weak revenue. He referred to the federal government’s reform scorecard, which he said showed subsidy savings helped release resources across the federation between June 2023 and December 2025, with allocations flowing to the federal, state and local tiers of government.

Idris added that the broader reform effort had created room for spending on infrastructure, social programmes and other priorities, while warning that reintroducing petrol support would add to public finances already carrying an electricity subsidy. He said business groups and other economic actors had also cautioned against reversing the policy.