The Federal Government (FG), has announced N5 billion palliative to each State of the federation, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), to cushion the impact of petrol subsidy removal.
Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State, who disclosed this on Thursday during an interactive session with State House correspondents in Abuja after the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting said it is to enable them procure food items for distribution to low income households.
The NEC meeting, chaired by Vice President Kashim Shettima comes in the wake of the hike in the cost of food items, and petroleum.
In addition to the fund, Zulum added that the Government also released five trucks of rice each to the 36 state governors.
According to him, the state governors are to procure 100,000 bags of rice, 40,000 bags of maize, and fertilizers.
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He noted that 52 percent of the funds were given to the state governments as grants while 48% given as loans.
The Council further set up a committee, made up of Governor Charles Soludo of Anambra State, Chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, Governor AbdulRazaq AbdulRahman of Kwara State among others, tasked with the responsibility of engaging with the leadership of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) over the latter’s push for palliatives due to the subsidy removal.
Asides the economic difficulties facing Nigeria in the wake of the fuel subsidy removal, NEC also discussed security issues especially recent attacks in the northern parts of the country.
NEC’s meeting is coming hours after the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited secured a $3 billion Emergency Crude Repayment Loan from African Export-Import Bank (AFREXIM) Bank.
