By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Nigeria’s House of Representatives on Thursday approved the request from President Bola Tinubu, in which he is seeking an amendment to the 2022 appropriation act, to incorporate N500 billion ($625.4m) for palliatives to Nigerians.
This seeks to cushion the effects of the recent removal of subsidy on petrol on a vast majority of the populace in the West African country where poverty rate is high.
The approval was granted on Thursday after members of the parliament made contributions. On Wednesday, the amendment had passed the first, second, and third readings during plenary.
The president said he hoped the lawmakers will consider his request “expeditiously”.
“I write to the house of reps to approve the amendment of the 2022 Supplementary Appropriation Act in accordance to the attached,” the letter reads.
“The request has become necessarily important to, among other things, source for funds necessary to provide palliative to mitigate the effect of the removal of fuel subsidy on Nigerians.
“Thus, the sum of N500 billion only has been extracted from the 2022 Supplementary Act of N819,536,937,815 for the provision of palliative to cushion the effect of petrol subsidy removal,” the President’s letter reads in part.
In December, the national assembly passed a supplementary budget of N819 billion for the 2022 fiscal year.
Removal of petroleum subsidy has caused increase in prices of transportation, staple foods and other essentials.
Labour has repeatedly called for an increase in minimum wage, currently pegged at N30,000.
