The minister of finance and coordinating minister of the economy, Wale Edun has presented the Accelerated Stabilization and Advancement Plan (ASAP), designed to address key challenges affecting the reform initiatives and stimulate development in various sectors of the economy.
The ASAP also serves somewhat as an official acknowledgement that the government has continued subsidizing premium motor spirit (PMS), popularly known as fuel, the new plan revealed that “government is still supporting downstream consumption.”
The Plan further noted: “At current rates, expenditure on fuel subsidy is projected to reach N5.4trillion by the end of 2024. This compares unfavourably with N3.6 trillion in 2023 and N2.0 trillion in 2022.” The presentation of the stabilization plan to the President yesterday occurred about 48 hours after Edun, during a television interview last Sunday, said a stabilization package was underway, in response to a question on the recent exit of some multinationals from Nigeria.
A draft copy of the Plan, which was presented to the president yesterday with an accompanying Executive Order to bolster the plan, gave an insight into how the administration seeks to address some of the many problems which seem to be trying to torpedo its reforms, among others. ASAP is structured to advance Tinubu’s economy-related eight priority areas and is broken down into the Agriculture and Food Security Sub-Committee plan, Energy Sub-Committee plan: Oil, Energy Sub-Committee plan: Gas, Energy Sub-Committee plan: Power, Health and Social Welfare Sub-Committee plan, and Business Support Sub-Committee plan.
The minister is expected to advise on the macro-fiscal position of the Plan and is to consider non-exclusive options, including pushing for prioritization of initiatives to reduce supplementary budget requirements, pursuing the supplementary budget as a partial funding source, pursuing virement of the current budget, and sale of government assets (but this will have a time lag).
President Bola Tinubu is expected to sign an Executive Order on ASAP after due consultations and finetuning of the draft presented by the Minister.
