ABSTRACT
Fuel subsidy removal in Nigeria has impacted consumer goods, transportation, and house rent in different facets. Political economists and data analysts opined that fuel subsidy removal frees up resources, while others say it enhances poverty. This study was conducted to investigate the impact of fuel subsidy removal on consumer goods. The rentier state theory was employed as the theoretical framework for analysis, and the study used the descriptive survey method with a cross-sectional procedure as the research design. The study employed the frequency distribution, and simple percentages to analyze the impacts of fuel subsidy removal.
The Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to test the formulated hypotheses at a significance level of 5%. The study affirmed that the removal of fuel subsidy increased the cost of consumer goods, since factors such as house rent and transportation which generally have effect on the cost ofgoods are affected, leading to poor standard of living of Nigerians.
Using the discourse evaluation methodology, we provide a few perception into the macroeconomic and microeconomic implications of the 2023 gas subsidy elimination in Nigeria. The positive implications are that gas subsidy elimination might unfastened up economic assets for different sectors of the economy, incentivize home refineries to supply greater petroleum merchandise, lessen Nigeria’s dependence on imported gas, growth employment, channel price range for the improvement of vital public infrastructure, lessen the price range deficit and generate a price range surplus withinside the close to future, lessen authorities borrowing, shrink corruption related to gas subsidy payments, growth competition, reinvigorate home refineries and decrease pressure at the change rate. The terrible implications are that gas subsidy elimination might also additionally decrease financial boom withinside the quick term, growth inflation, growth poverty, growth gas smuggling, growth crime, growth the fees of petroleum merchandise and lack of jobs withinside the casual sector. It is suggested that the authorities ought to cautiously examine the impact of gas subsidy elimination on people and groups and offer palliatives and different financial remedy applications to cushion the negative impact on people and firms.
