Informal sector workers lament N8,000 palliative as lawmakers get N149m each
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Informal sector workers have protested to President Bola Tinubu that the N8,000 he approved for 12 million households last week is not enough to mitigate the effects of fuel subsidy removal, which has triggered higher prices of goods and service.
Both the Senate and the House of Representatives passed Tinubu’s requests last Thursday, the same day he made them, gingered by their own N70 billion cut, which translates to N149 million for each of the entire 469 NASS members.
However, 12 million households out of 133 million multidimensionally poor Nigerians will receive N8,000 per month for six months to cushion the effect of subsidy removal. That adds up to a total N48,000 for each household.
Federation of Informal Sector Workers (FIWON) General Secretary, Gbenga Komolafe, argued the removal of fuel subsidy has resulted in the destruction of millions of micro and small businesses and loss of jobs in the sector.
“The combined effect of the subsequent removal of subsidies on premium motor spirit which spiked the pump price per liter by as much as 300 per cent in some parts of the country as well as the devaluation of the naira announced by the President are already being felt in the astronomical rise in the cost of the most basic essentials, especially food and transportation,” Komolafe said in a statement.
“As reported in the media, the grant will enable the transfer of the sum of N8,000 monthly to 12 million poor and low-income households for a period of six months, with a multiplier effect on about 60 million individuals.
“The grants will be disbursed through the much abused Conditional Cash Transfer window.”
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N8,000 can’t feed one child for 30 days
“The first issue with this is that the amount of money to be disbursed to beneficiaries is truly so paltry. N8,000 or about USD10 per month in today’s exchange rate really cannot feed a child of five years in 30 days, let alone supporting all vulnerable Nigerians to meet the cost of basic needs, as announced under the programme,” Komolafe added, per Vanguard.
“We would also question how they arrived at the figure of 12 million poor and low income households in a country with over 130 million people suffering from ‘multi dimensional poverty’ according to official statistics.
“Who are these 12 million Nigerians, how were they identified?
“It is critical to raise this because similar programmes in the past suffered so much, as relatively privileged Nigerians had their accounts credited with N10,000 ‘MarketMoni’ while most market women and the poor only heard about the programme on the radio.
“Under the Federal Government National Social Investment Programme, NSIP, easily the most ambitious financial intermediation programme in recent decades, similar programmes to this newly announced programme were implemented, especially between 2017 and 2019 with billions of dollars invested in them.”