Nigeria spent US$1.2 billion on fuel subsidies so far in 2013

Nigeria has spent a total of 192.5 billion naira (US$1.2 billion) on subsidy payments to 19 fuel importers so far this year, the finance ministry said on June 18.
Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is trying to limit the number of firms who import fuel into Africa’s most populous nation to cut the waste and corruption involved in the subsidy program.
The program soaked up more than 1 trillion naira (US$6.2 billion) last year, which was equivalent to 20% of the total federal budget, exceeding a planned 888 billion naira (US$ 5.5 billion) spending.
President Goodluck Jonathan attempted to remove the subsidy in January 2012, but was forced by a wave of strikes and protests to partially reinstate it, albeit at a 50% lower rate.
Economists say the subsidy feeds corruption and prevents much needed investment in oil refining, but it is popular with Nigerians who see it as the only benefit they get from living in an oil-rich state rife with graft.
The government has only begun to publish a running tally of how much it has paid out this year, making it difficult to compare the costs of the program against previous years.
A parliamentary investigation last year found the administration of the subsidy had facilitated billions of dollars of corruption, with around half the fuel that marketers were claiming subsidies on never having been delivered.
The Nigerian government has since arraigned some fuel marketers suspected of false claims, but no government official has yet been charged.
(June 18, 2013)