 We want to bring the run-up conversation home. The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zaynabah Med, has said that the federal government will do away with the petroleum subsidy by June 2023. She said this on Tuesday in Albuja during the press conference to mark the end of the 28th National Economic Summit. Reports also say that a fuel subsidy gulped 2.56 trillion Naira between January and August 2022 and also in the medium term expenditure framework the federal government proposed to you know send 3.3 trillion Naira on fuel subsidy between January and June 2023 and of course according to the Minister removal of the fuel subsidy is part of the federal government's medium term plan in the budget. It's going to be a very you know interactive conversation and to have that with us we have Dr. Chinwee Koba he's an economist and an analyst and he's also the convener of the Chinwee Koba Foundation. You're welcome sir. It's my pleasure to be on the program. Alright so the subsidy is going to be removed by June 2023 this fuel subsidy. How do you think this will affect the Nigerian economy? Well I think it may not be appropriate to say it in absolute truth or definitely it may be removed because we definitely will have a new government in by that time and we do not know the the line they will take but in answering your question removing fuel subsidy is neither here nor there the this is because I said today we do not have a complete information on what the points of where we are consumers a nation and all that so it's still number that that we need to look into deeper to understand it is so and then I think that's what the new government might need to do first to understand what quantity of petroleum produce do we import do we consume and all that and that will help us determine that but beyond that I've always come back for the removal of fuel subsidy first as a result of the corruption that is also involved in the in the whole process and and the opaque nature of the whole transition that is also related to fuel subsidy it will affect the economy there will be panic and that will also lead to sudden rise in prices of goose and services already we are battling with inflation as you know yesterday the Nigerian good statistics released the current inflation rate which is now about 21.09% if you recall in my last program I did say that will continue experiencing high inflation until after the elections next year and that is what we have also by time you remove fuel subsidy as a result of the panic you will know bus drivers who raise their prices people who raise their prices and that will also affect the general economy of the country and where being that over time it depends on how the government wants to do that if the money that is going to be saved from the removal of the fuel subsidy will be deployed first in providing palliative to the people in terms of providing that public transportation and all the rest of it off and also deploying it in also in the social sectors I now are listening to your conversation earlier on education in our country part of the problem we're experiencing is not just about tertiary education but you find out that the basic education is that is lowest you know we have a lot of out of children out of school children and the kind of education we are getting now is not qualitative also so until we did with those issues so if government decides to deploy savings from those things in those kinds of centers to improve our education improve our healthcare improve our wash and rest I'm sure it will also help to cushion the would be negative impact of fuel subsidy removal by NACA you've got those actually okay you've just talked about the consequences to Nigerians if this should be done but speak to the the timing of this removal it's always somehow using the Nigerian patterns administration is leaving and this massive employment just like now I saw a few minutes ago that the embargo on employment nation-wide has been removed so they want to do mass employment in the federal sector okay good and then subsidy is going to be removed theoretically yeah by June which is it's just me me then a new administration is coming in and by June you're removing subsidy so how do you see the timing speak to it what is it good or is it bad and if so why you know when I when I met my from a introductory I spoke to that I said we are not sure if first subsidy petroleum subsidy will be removed in June because we'll be having a new government this government cannot speak to a new government that will be empowered there and as she may have observed the announcement is more of a political announcement than an economic announcement the reason being the current administration has been in power for almost eight years and before they came in it was part of the things they said they would do they said there's nothing like first subsidy and not rest of it but we've had that the first subsidy gradually increasing as for 2023 the budget for six months is about 3.6 trillion as I talked last this year we have spent over 500 billion on first subsidy so and you didn't do it while you were in office and you are leaving making an announcement that that would be removed and I don't think that is that is in terms of timing that is not realistic you know and I don't think that is what is going to happen I think that announcement is just made to also being the good news that the government is doing something but in actual implementation I don't see that happening immediately okay by a very sure you're listening to the conversation maybe you have a question or two or an observation I absolutely quite understand and share the sentiments that Mr. Vice is expressing I feel to that you know we need our political elite to begin to consider taking hard decisions okay but those hard decisions have to be has to be accompanied by transparency has to have you know structures to guarantee accountability and then whatever benefits immediately accrue from them should be channeled to the benefit of the population that has to bear you know some of the side effects of those we've been rigmarolding and going around in circles over this issue of subsidy removal even at some point you were told it was removed and suddenly we are still you know paying that and I think that if we do not have a local capacity to refine our especially petroleum products it's going to be extremely difficult for any government not to have to at some point subsidize pure consumption if what we buy on the global market is affected by the dramatic rising prices as we saw recently we have been terribly affected simply because our own look at finding capacity is almost zero if we have the capacity to do these things ourselves it will cushion we might have an increase but it will not be as as hard and as harsh you know as it will be when we have to again be importing fuel and not just talking of you know petroleum but all quantities and things that we need you know we must build our capacity to refine them to finish them up and I know just the exporting raw materials all the time let's just round off here if you may in 30 seconds if you can I like this this is the season so we'll talk about it at 2023 we'll have election what is your projection what is your your your hope for 2023 election and all that so do you have faith in it and what are you expecting just briefly please personally I'm very optimistic that the election will be free and fair as I've been promised by the electoral body dynamic and the president and the citizens will elect a leader with the capacity with the character and the competence no longer with the badmats that and promises that deal with how you know solving our problems as a nation I believe that if we have a president that is truly elected by the people then we will begin to deal with our long-term structural problems as it should be you know taking us to where we need to be okay thank you so much mr. baffle coming on the show this today we hope to interact with you more in the coming days thank you all right we'll be taking a break the news will come up at 12 and when we return the run-up will continue they're not go anywhere stay with us