FG TO WITHDRAW PETROLEUM SUBSIDY SOON –NCS

The Federal Government will soon stop subsidising the cost of petroleum products. In the past three years, it has paid N1tn to petroleum products' marketers as the balance of the market rates and the pump prices of petroleum products.

However, the National Council of State, which met in Abuja on Tuesday, discussed the thorny issue of withdrawal petroleum subsidy, stressing that very soon, its implementation would be on stream.

The Council also ex-rayed the country's economic blue-print, as encapsulated in the Vision 2020 policy.

To explore how the Vision 2020 objectives would be implemented, the Niger State Governor, Mr. Babangida Aliyu, said that a retreat had been fixed for Monday.

Aliyu explained, 'We met today and looked at six major items with a further discussion. We looked at the economic blue print, which is actually the Vision 2020. The document has been perfected and a retreat will come up on Monday.

'But virtually by the year 2020, we should be able to be among the top 20 economies of the world. There is already a group that calls itself the G20. This time, it was not up-down, but down-up, from the local government to the federal level.'

He also said, 'By the report we have, we are already among the top 30 countries in the world, and our movement from now would be that of getting among the top 20 instead of the 30 we are today.'

The governor further said, 'With all the scepticism and with all the cynicism of Nigerians with regards to governance, which to many of us is a good thing, we have discovered that our economy, and indeed, the nation has been doing well progressively.

'We do hope that by the time we are able to get things right, which should be in a few years, even before the 2020, at least power, which is the aim of the Vision 2020, will be a minimum of 35,000 megawatts.'