Economic Council Considers N702 Billion Petrol Allowance For Civil Servants

National Economic Council is considering a cost of living for civil servants, as part of palliatives to cushion the harsh effects of the petrol subsidy removal.

However, the proposed petroleum allowances is to be disbursed to civil servants at between N23.5 billion and n40 billion monthly.

The proposed package, totaling N702 billion, was recommended by the national salaries, incomes and wages commission before the council during its inaugural session on thursday in Abuja.

Governor Bala Mohammed addressing the state house correspondents ,after the meeting said a committee has been set up to source for funds on how to implement the proposed palliative.

Members of the committee are governors of Anambra, Benue, Kaduna, Cross River, Oyo and Bauchi states, representing their respective go-political zones.

Also, governor Alex Otti said the council also considered the possibility of local mass production of vehicles using compressed natural gas.

The council noted that this could be achieved through the vehicle assembly plants thus:

Lagos, Ogun, Anambra, Kaduna, Kano, Akwa Ibom and Enugu states, some of which were already rolling out electric and cng powered vehicles.

It considers legislative and financial supports for the plants for the locally assembly or manufacture of vehicles powered by CNG.

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On June 7, following the announcement of the petrol subsidy removal, President Bola Tinubu directed the NEC to kickstart the process of working on interventions to ameliorate the impact of the subsidy removal on the people.

Speaking also, Umar Radda, governor of Katsina, said NEC focused its discussions on how to provide palliative measures through the NG-Cares programme.

“As you are aware, the NG-Cares programme is a programme that started in 2021 running up to 2024.

And then is to provide some emergency on palliatives, social needs on so many issues ranging from small farmers holders, MSMEs and other interventions,” he said.

“It’s a $750 million from the World Bank-assisted funds and it commenced a long time ago.

Additional funding can be sourced from the federal government, World Bank, development partners as well as Nigerian private sector.

“In specific, the World Bank can be approached for additional financing on the NG-Cares programme.

Discussion can start as soon as possible. So these are the recommendations that were made. And the economic council will pursue these recommendations for the benefit of the Nigerian, vulnerable and the poor.”