SCORECARD: How Nigeria's oil sector fared under Buhari as petroleum minister

To achieve these objectives, six months after he was elected president in 2015, Mr Buhari appointed himself as Minister of Petroleum Resources, a move that many Nigerians said would engender transparency and accountability in the nation’s opaque oil sector.

Mr Kachikwu said the government could no longer pay the subsidy due to the fraud tainting the scheme, adding that the government would channel its resources instead into getting the refineries up, and saving the trillions of naira past governments squandered on fuel subsidy payments.

In December 2018, it became evident that the government was quietly continuing with the subsidy regime and earmarked N305 billion for petrol subsidy in the 2019 budget proposal.

She said the government will retain fuel subsidy indefinitely and will work on amending the 2022 budget to provide funds for that purpose

In the first quarter of 2023, Mrs Ahmed said that it will be more appropriate for the government to begin the implementation of its fuel subsidy policy in the second quarter of the year

The government subsequently said that it will phase out the subsidy regime by the end of the first half of the year.

The federal government in its draft fiscal strategy paper for 2023 through 2025 said that oil revenue underperformed due to significant production shortfalls such as shut-ins resulting from pipeline vandalism and crude oil theft as well as high petrol subsidy cost due to higher landing costs of imported products.