FG Says Petrol Subsidy, FX Reforms Generated N15.8tn for Nigeria Between 2023 and 2025

The Federal Government says the removal of petrol subsidy and foreign exchange reforms generated an additional N15.8 trillion for Nigeria’s Federation between June 2023 and December 2025, with states and local governments receiving a larger share of the resulting resources.

Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, disclosed the figure on Wednesday while presenting the government’s reform scorecard, titled “The Benefits, Costs and Harm Prevented.”

The disclosure also offered the government’s latest explanation of what happened to the savings from petrol subsidy removal, a question that has remained a major issue since President Bola Tinubu ended the subsidy in May 2023.

Oyedele clarified that the N15.8 trillion did not appear in the Federation Account as a separate entry labelled “subsidy savings”. Instead, he said the reforms increased the naira value of revenue collected by government agencies as a result of changes in the exchange rate and the removal of subsidy-related distortions.

“Between June 2023 and December 2025, subsidy savings mobilised a sum of N15.8tn in resources for the Federation,” Oyedele said.

He explained that the impact became visible through higher revenue collections, particularly from Customs and tax receipts. With the naira value of foreign transactions rising after the exchange-rate reforms, the same dollar-denominated transactions generated more naira revenue for the Federation.

Oyedele also stressed that the additional resources could not be attributed to petrol subsidy removal alone. He said the foreign exchange reform had also eliminated what he described as an implicit subsidy on the exchange rate, which he argued had benefited rent-seekers rather than ordinary Nigerians and manufacturers.

“Not just the subsidy removal, but also the exchange rate flotation, because we were subsidising the exchange rate. And that subsidy was not going to the ordinary person or manufacturers. It was going to rent-seekers,” he said.

The government’s position means the N15.8 trillion represents the combined fiscal impact of two major reforms rather than a separate pool of cash sitting in the Federation Account. The explanation is likely to keep the debate alive over how the gains from the reforms have translated into improved public services and living conditions for Nigerians.