The minister of finance and coordinating minister of the economy, Mr. Taiwo Oyedele has said petrol subsidy savings mobilised N15.8 trillion in resources for the federation between June 2023 and December 2025.
Oyedele spoke on Wednesday during a press briefing on the scorecard of Nigeria’s reforms between 2023 and 2026.
He noted that the savings were reflected through higher revenue collections, particularly because the naira value of dollar-denominated transactions increased following the exchange-rate reform.
“Between June 2023 and December 2025, subsidy savings mobilised the sum of N15.8 trillion in resources for the federation,” Oyedele revealed.
Taiwo said the federal government received N5.4 trillion of the N15.8 trillion, while N10.4 trillion was shared among states and local governments.
The federal government also generated N3.1 trillion in incremental independent revenue, principally from remittances by government-owned entities, during the period.
Oyedele said the federal government’s total incremental resources from subsidy savings, independent revenue and borrowing amounted to N20.4 trillion.
“Altogether, the federal government’s incremental resources over the period — subsidy savings, independent revenue, and incremental borrowing — came to N20.4 trillion,” he said.
Oyedele said the N11.9 trillion in additional borrowing would have been “far higher and economically destabilising” without the fiscal space created by the reforms.
The minister said the federal government spent N30.64 trillion in incremental expenditure during the same period.
Of the amount, N9.39 trillion was spent on wage adjustments, minimum wage increases and allowances for public servants.
He said another N9.37 trillion went to external debt servicing, while N6.5 trillion was spent on strategic infrastructure.
Oyedele said the wage adjustment expenditure exceeded the federal government’s entire share of the savings from subsidy removal.
“The incremental amount that the federal government spends paying higher wages is more than the entire savings that the federal government earned from subsidy removal,” he said.
The minister said the increase in external debt servicing was largely caused by the depreciation of the naira, noting that the dollar value of the debt remained unchanged but required more naira to service.
“If we were paying $1 million before in interest on our foreign debt, it is still the same $1 million, but instead of N460, it’s now N1,415,” Oyedele said.
“That’s more naira that we need to incur. And I’ve said this before, when you have debt service to pay, you don’t negotiate, you don’t delay, you pay. Because delay or defaults have consequences.”
The minister said the figures showed that the reforms were not introduced primarily to increase government revenue, but to address “entrenched corruption in the artificially managed fuel subsidy and foreign exchange markets”.
