The Federal Government has disclosed that the removal of petrol subsidy and the reform of the foreign exchange market generated N15.8tn in additional resources for the Federation between June 2023 and December 2025.
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, made the disclosure on Wednesday while presenting the government’s reform scorecard at a media briefing titled, “The Benefits, Costs and Harm Prevented.”
Oyedele said the additional resources accrued from the combined impact of the two major economic reforms, with states and local governments receiving a significant share through the Federation Account.
The minister, however, clarified that the N15.8tn did not appear as a distinct entry labelled “subsidy savings” in the Federation Account.
He explained that the financial gains from the subsidy removal were reflected indirectly through increased government revenues, particularly as the naira value of dollar-denominated collections rose following the adjustment of the exchange rate.
“Between June 2023 and December 2025, subsidy savings mobilised a sum of N15.8tn in resources for the Federation,” Oyedele said.
Responding to the persistent question over the whereabouts of the savings from the petrol subsidy removal, he said there was never a separate line item in the Federation Account specifically identifying the funds as subsidy savings.
He cited customs duties as an example, noting that the naira value of import duties collected in dollars increased substantially after the exchange rate reforms.
According to him, similar increases occurred in petroleum-related taxes collected by the government because the same dollar-denominated revenue translated into more naira under the new exchange rate regime.
“So, the savings showed up in the Federation accounts by way of higher revenue collections as a result of the reforms,” he said.
Oyedele further stressed that the N15.8tn was not generated by the removal of petrol subsidy alone.
He said the government’s foreign exchange reforms 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 businesses.
“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,” the minister said.
The explanation comes more than three years after President Bola Tinubu announced the removal of petrol subsidy in May 2023, a policy that substantially altered the cost of fuel and triggered wider economic adjustments.
The government has consistently defended the reform as necessary to free up public resources and reduce fiscal pressures, while also implementing measures aimed at increasing revenue and stabilising the economy.
Oyedele’s latest disclosure indicates that, rather than being accumulated as a separate pool of cash, the financial gains associated with the reforms were absorbed into the broader revenue framework of the Federation through increased collections.
The minister said the combined effect of the reforms ultimately expanded the resources available to the three tiers of government during the 30-month period under review.
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