Speaking at the Oxford Global Think Tank Leadership Conference themed “Better Leader for a Better Nigeria,” Sanusi, who was the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and a key advocate of subsidy removal at the time, shared that the policy was simply misunderstood and mismanaged.
According to him, what Nigeria referred to as fuel subsidy was effectively the Federal Government’s way of guaranteeing a fixed fuel price regardless of fluctuations in global crude prices, exchange rates or interest rates.
He stated that the fuel subsidy forced the FG to pay large sums to maintain petrol prices, which led to borrowing not only to fund subsidies but also to pay interest on those loans.