Minister of Finance, Taiwo Oyedele, has said the Federal Government saved N15.8 trillion from the removal of fuel subsidy and gains from other reforms introduced by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration over the last three years.

Oyedele disclosed this at a press conference on Wednesday, where he gave a breakdown of the savings from the subsidy removal and other reforms.

According to him, the N15.8 trillion savings accrued to the Federation Account and was shared among the Federal Government, states and local governments.

He said the Federal Government received N5.43 trillion, while states got N6.52 trillion and local governments received N3.88 trillion from the savings.

Oyedele also said the reforms generated N3.12 trillion in other incremental revenues and N11.85 trillion in incremental borrowing.

He explained that the resources brought the Federal Government’s total incremental resources during the period to about N20.4 trillion.

Oyedele said the government, however, spent about N30.64 trillion on additional expenditures during the same period.

He explained that the spending covered wage adjustments, external debt servicing, infrastructure and electricity subsidies.

“The Federal Government had approximately N20.4 trillion in incremental resources.

“Over the same period, additional expenditures amounted to approximately N30.64 trillion. Subsidy removal therefore did not create one large pool of cash available to the Federal Government. It reduced a major fiscal burden and the amount of additional borrowing that would otherwise have been required”, he stated.

According to Oyedele, N9.39 trillion of the N30.64 trillion expenditure went into wage adjustments, while N9.37 trillion was spent on external debt servicing.

He added that N6.47 trillion was spent on infrastructure and N3.14 trillion on electricity subsidies. (Nigerian Tribune)