Index to Nigerian Newspapers

The World Bank has criticized the Federal Government’s conditional cash transfer program, revealing it has only reached thirty-seven percent of its fifteen million targeted households two years after its launching. Published in the Nigeria Development Update report released in Abuja, the bank noted that surging inflation and weak economic growth have pushed an additional forty million citizens into poverty since 2019. The eight hundred million dollar loan-backed program was originally launched by President Bola Tinubu in twenty twenty-three to cushion fuel subsidy removal but suffered major delays following a corruption scandal involving former Minister of Humanitarian Affairs Betta Edu. To resolve ongoing administrative and biometric verification bottlenecks, Vice President Kashim Shettima recently set up an inter-agency task force. The World Bank warns that the government must urgently fix its social protection frameworks and update registries to prevent millions from being left behind.

The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority announced that it may ban sixty-thousand-liter capacity trucks from federal highways to reduce petroleum tanker accidents, which have caused nearly five hundred deaths over the past three years, proposing a maximum limit of forty-five thousand liters instead. During a stakeholders' engagement in Abuja, the chief executive officer of the regulatory authority, Farouk Ahmed, described the rising carnage—which surged dramatically from single digits to hundreds of fatalities annually—as completely unacceptable, while outlining other safety mandates including mandatory anti-spill valves, driver training, and safe-to-load initiatives. However, the president of the National Association of Road Transport Owners, Yusuf Othman, strongly opposed the truck capacity ban, warning that it would jeopardize investments worth over three hundred billion naira tied to two thousand heavy-duty vehicles, and instead urged the government to prioritize the rehabilitation of bad roads and address infrastructure challenges.

The Federal Government has scheduled a national stakeholder forum for July 23 and 24, 2025, to tackle rising concerns over petrol pricing and supply issues within the deregulated downstream sector. Organized by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, the summit aims to bring together key industry players, including refiners and marketers, to establish pricing standards and ensure adequate crude oil supply. Francis Ogaree, an executive director at the regulatory authority, announced the event during the Nigeria Oil and Gas Energy Week, emphasizing that the dialogue is necessary to build a stable and resilient market following the removal of fuel subsidies. The meeting comes in response to heavy criticism from independent marketers over sudden, unannounced price changes by the Dangote refinery, which have negatively impacted local retailers. Billy Gillis-Harry, the President of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria, has continuously called for pricing transparency and fair market practices to protect retailers. Additionally, unions like the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria have accused marketers of exploiting citizens with inflated prices, arguing that Premium Motor Spirit should ideally cost between N700 and N750 per litre. While addressing these challenges, Francis Ogaree noted that Nigeria currently has ten operational or near-operational refineries—including three owned by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company—but warned that the country must boost its crude oil production to meet the feedstock demands of these facilities and dozens of newly licensed projects.

Nigeria's average cost of basic food items is expected to surge in the coming months due to farmers exporting their bumper harvest to neighboring countries in exchange for foreign currency. This decision, despite the challenges posed by rising food inflation, puts food security at a threshold. Farmers in northern Nigeria have confirmed bumper harvests of crops like millet, sorghum, beans, and maize, but many are exporting to countries like Niger Republic, Cameroun, Chad, Ghana, and Asia and Europe for higher revenue.Many Nigerian farmers are exporting their produce due to attractive prices offered by international buyers, according to the Kano State chapter of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria. Middlemen from the southern part of the country purchase grains from farmers in the north and promote local food export to other African countries. The Federal Ministry of Agriculture in Jigawa State is working on strategies to make local sales more attractive to farmers, and the Federal Government is working on policies to encourage local sales, including providing incentives for farmers who sell their produce locally.

Despite Nigeria securing over three billion dollars in loans from international financial institutions like the World Bank, the African Development Bank, and the Japan International Cooperation Agency over the past four years to improve its power sector, electricity generation continues to stagnate around four 4,500 megawatts for a population exceeding two hundred million people. This ongoing crisis is driven by persistent challenges such as legal delays, bureaucratic bottlenecks, frequent national grid collapses, decaying infrastructure, and concerns over accountability, leaving citizens to endure constant blackouts while experts question the justification and effective utilization of borrowing money for a privatized industry.