The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy Wale Edun on Tuesday assured Nigerians that Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses would be rolled out this month. Edun said the CNG-fueled vehicle, would subsidize the cost of a petroleum-enabling vehicle by 30 per cent which is a measure put in place to provide succour to Nigerians amidst economic hardship in the country.....CONTINUE READING THE ARTICLE FROM THE SOURCE
He said, “By this month, the CNG buses, which took time given what’s happening in Ukraine and elsewhere and the supply have taken time to bring them in and to bring in the kits and do conversion, will now begin to roll out.
“There’s no fuel subsidy in the budget, that is the truth and that is the technical fact.
“And I think there are people at the organization that have a responsibility to make sure for security reasons that there is fuel. But that doesn’t mean that there’s a subsidy in the budget”.
Speaking further the finance minister revealed that a new estate fund will be announced to address the cost of landed properties while enabling its affordability to the citizens.
Addressing measures put to strengthen the economy Edun said, “When you look at the Private Public Partnerships (PPPs) for major infrastructure projects that are linking all the ports and all the states of the south with the Lagos to Calabar Highway as well as the Sokoto Badagry Highway that is linking so much farmland, dams, towns and villages from north to south.
“Those are being funded with private-public partnerships, with the government finding its equity to put down.
“Within the law, we have approval and will shortly be announcing a real estate fund. On the other hand, our pension funds can invest within their limits at their normal rates of return, and at the same time, we blend it with some of this concessional financing at one per cent, and as a result, we’ll be able to write for Nigerians 25-year low-interest mortgages.
“That in itself will spark a boom in housing construction, because once you have off-takers for property, the banks will finance construction, and the developers will go to town. That is a major that we are looking to, to grow the economy.”
Edun added that the government has not borrowed funds from the Central Bank to pay up debts but rather employed market policies to strengthen the economy.
