Fuel Subsidy Removal and the Nigerian Economy

Despite the huge amount of money Nigerian government spends on fuel subsidy, the situation in the oil sector has not been promising and Nigerians still experience scarcity of premium motor spirit. There have been dearth of infrastructural investments in the oil sector due to the enormous funds sunk into fuel subsidization, and as it is now, the government is yet to fix her refineries. As a result, there has been little or no significant improvement in the quality of life for the majority of Nigerians, 54 percent of who still lives below the national poverty line. Hence, the main objective of this study was to assess the contributions of the fuel subsidy in the Nigerian economy, that is, the study examined the problems, the prospects and a way forward for the sustainable economic growth in Nigeria. The study used Rosenstein-Rodan's Thesis or Theory of the “Big Push” to drive home the message. The major sources of data used in the study were primary and secondary data. The primary data were collected through the use of questionnaire and the secondary data were also collected. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the data. The study found that fuel subsidy has not resulted in a significant improvement in the quality of the life for the majority of Nigerians. The study therefore recommended that government should invest heavily on infrastructures and human capital instead of focusing on just removing fuel subsidy