The Nigerian government on Thursday approved five trucks of rice each for the 36 States and the Federal Capital Territory as part of palliatives to cushion the effects of fuel subsidy.
The rice measure by the federal government was announced after a National Economic Council (NEC) meeting chaired by Vice President Kashim Shettima.
NEC also reached a consensus on frontier States bordering the Niger Republic. The council agreed that these States should be assisted with more palliative materials given the number of refugees into their States.
Chronicle NG reports that NEC had also approved N5 billion to each State to cushion the effect of fuel subsidy removal.
Zulum stated that each state will receive 5 billion naira as a grant and a 2-year loan to purchase 100,000 trucks of rice and 40,000 trucks of maize following a meeting of the National Economic Council (NEC) chaired by the vice president in Abuja.
“NEC expressed serious concerns about rising food prices and rising transport costs, among other things, as a result of subsidy removal.”
Labour is putting pressure on Tinubu to provide assistance to households and businesses. They have questioned his decision to terminate the fuel subsidy without taking steps to reduce growing prices.
Tinubu unveiled a 500 billion naira package last month to boost employment and instructed the distribution of more than 200,000 metric tonnes of grains to households to alleviate poverty.
