Fakoyejo Olalekan
A Chieftain in the All-Progressive Congress (APC), Mustapha Audu, has stated that the removal of subsidy on fuel could create billionaires in the electric vehicle market in Nigeria.
Audu said the removal of the subsidy will free trillions of naira, which the government can invest in young entrepreneurs to start businesses or invest in the electric vehicle market.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelHe said the electric vehicle market in Nigeria has three to four companies that can benefit from the investments to take over the entire market share in Africa, adding that this will create wealth and new billionaires in the country.
“Less than a hundred people benefitted from 6 trillion naira. Meanwhile, Education is about 200 billion, Infrastructure is about 300 billion, Healthcare, same thing.
“The highest is security, which is still about 900 billion. So, the cost of fuel subsidy was more than almost every other thing in the budget combined. It makes absolutely no sense, so, it was critical removing it.
“Now, the money saved from there will be put towards palliatives, the money saved from there will be put towards even subsidizing the last mile solution.
“The money will be put towards investing in young entrepreneurs, people that want to start businesses, grow their businesses or expand,” Audu said, using the electric vehicle market as an example during an interview with Arise TV on Wednesday.
According to Audu, “If the Federal and state governments were to partner and invest in these companies and build up capacities, we can take the entire market share for not just Nigeria, but for Africa.
“And this is what we need, new billionaires created, wealth creation, wealth generation, people that, you know, have the ability to deliver, government should invest in these people.”
He further stated that the removal of fuel subsidy has created an opportunity that needs to be capitalised, disclosing that more cars are now sold after the government stopped subsidising petrol.
“This has created unique opportunities for Nigerians to capitalize on and to benefit. Prior to the removal of fuel subsidy, we were selling maybe, 2/3 vehicles a month, now we are selling 4/5 vehicles a day. So, you can see opportunity has been created,” Audu said.
