The Federal Government has said it planned to stockpile petrol product for a minimum of six months ahead of subsidy removal to mitigate its effect on Nigerian masses.
The outgoing Buhari administration has announced the final subsidy removal on petrol with effect from July 1.
The plans were announced by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Ambassador Gabriel Aduda at the press briefing marking the end of the Sixth Nigerian International Energy Summit (NIES) in Abuja, The Nation reports.
Aduda said the government will ensure a minimum of six-month sufficiency stock of petrol prior to the final phasing out of the subsidy regime.
The government had earlier removed the subsidies on diesel and kerosene.
The permanent secretary said the government is working round the clock to minimise the disruption of the subsidy removal on the economy.
Giving details on what the government has put in place ahead of the subsidy removal, Aduda said: “I want to tell you that the ministry is taking it very seriously and all of us because we totally understand the removal of subsidy.
“But we also understand the greater importance of the citizens in the scheme of things. And as we speak, we are still taking a very close look at how best to achieve subsidy without disrupting the system of livelihood in Nigeria because that is our responsibility as a government.
“We have to ensure that that forex is made available for those that will do import. We have to ensure that there is some form of reforms where there needs to be.
“We have to ensure supplies are available for a minimum of six months. We have to ensure that when we finally do that the disruption will be minimal.
“There are quite a number of factors we have to look at. Yes, we are committed to the removal but we can’t be too certain until every indices have been considered to ensure that the effect on the removal is not so hard on the average Nigerian.”