The World Bank said on Thursday that the removal of petrol subsidy in Nigeria was an important step amid the COVID-19 crisis.
The bank, in its ‘Africa’s Pulse’ report entitled ‘Charting the road to recovery’, said countries in sub-Saharan Africa were seizing the opportunity created by the crisis to accelerate the structural reform agenda.
“The COVID-19 crisis is not being wasted among countries in the region… In Nigeria, the government has taken important steps to reform its subsidy regime,” it said.
The World Bank noted that the Nigerian government had eliminated petrol subsidy and established a market-based pricing mechanism with no price ceilings.
It said “The gasoline (petrol) price is set monthly by the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency from market-based costs.
“When international petroleum product prices start to recover, the PPPRA will allow price increases accordingly.”