The World Bank yesterday highlighted the strategies for revamping the nation’s economy..

It noted that high “inflation shocks’ pushed additional  eight million Nigerians into poverty in less than two years.

The bank said Nigeria has the worst Revenue-to-Gross Domestic Product (GDP)  ratio among 115 countries monitored by it.

These formed highlights of its November 2021 Nigeria Development Update released yesterday.

The bank’s suggestions on how to boost  the economy include: removal of subsidy on petroleum products, reduction of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) overdrafts or loans   to the government,  hike in “sinful goods’ taxes and  implementation  of a levy on electronic money transfers.

Others are increase in excise duty;  enhancement of the “flexibility and  reduction in “delays in border and port clearance”  as well as full  opening of   all land borders.

According to the Brettonwoods institution, the government could raise over N3 trillion yearly  if the ideas are implemented. The sum, it added, could be used to  finance primary health, basic education and rural connectivity projects.

The bank  however noted that with general elections drawing closer, the Muhammadu  Buhari administration might find them   challenging to “politically implement”.

It   described the  Nigerian PMS(premium motor spirit)  subsidy as  exceptionally generous, saying    that in October 2021, pump price in the country  was “the seventh-lowest among  168 economies surveyed at just ?495 per litre.”

Adducing further reasons why  subsidy should be removed, the bank argued that “the poorest 40 per cent of Nigerians” use  less than three percent of the total PMS consumption in the country.

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The bank  called  on the government to to protect the poor when subsidy is removed by implementing  a large-scale (covering 25 per cent  to 50 per cent of the population) and time-bound targeted cash-transfer programme to mitigate the  impacts of high inflation.”

It noted that the   plans  to spend N3,000 per person per year on health  in 2022 while fuel subsidies could cost N13,000 per person per year in the same year.”

The report partly reads “Nigeria is the only country in the world with a universal price subsidy that applies exclusively to PMS. Universal price subsidies for liquid fuels are almost always regressive, as the rich consume far more fuel than the poor.

“PMS subsidies are especially regressive because PMS is used primarily in light- and medium-duty motor vehicles, which are rarely owned by the poor. Since raising PMS prices tends to have minimal adverse effects on poor households, governments worldwide have typically prioritised eliminating PMS subsidies over those that apply to other fuels.