Nigerian leader plans $10 monthly handout to poor households after gas subsidy ends

By CHINEDU ASADU
Associated Press

KANO, Nigeria (AP) — Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu has told federal legislators that his government plans to pay $10 every month to poor households to ease the hardship caused by his administration’s removal of subsidies for gasoline. The handout will have a “multiplier effect” on 60 million Nigerians, according to Tinubu’s letter to the Nigerian Senate, which was read during plenary on Thursday. Some Nigerians have said the handout is inadequate, citing the increased cost of transportation and of goods as a result of the subsidy removal. Millions of Nigerians are already struggling with high inflation of 22.4%. At least 63% of the country’s more than 210 million population face “multidimensional poverty,” according to the national statistics agency.