Assessment of Impact of Fuel Subsidy Removal on Socio-economic Characteristics: A Survey of Households in Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria

摘要

Subsidy has been one of the means of trickling economic effect down to reach majority adopted by many countries, including Nigeria. Recently, in Nigeria, subsidy on petroleum was removed which has led to a great macro-based debates. However, a study on such effect on individual might better provide important information on the impact of the policy, especially the impact on wellbeing of the poor. Thus, this study assessed the impact of fuel subsidy removal on the socioeconomic characteristics of households in Maiduguri metropolis, Borno state, Nigeria. Survey data were collected and analysed using descriptive statistics and simple regression method. Result on socioeconomic characteristics revealed that about 70.4% of respondents in the study area were male, about 61.3% were married, 41.5% fall within the ages of 30-39 years. Besides, 50.7% had tertiary education, 52.1% were civil servants and about 34.5% have income level ranges between N40,000 - N59,999 monthly. It was also revealed that 56.3% of the respondents had 8 - 10 family members, while 57.7% of them have 1 - 5 dependents. On the other, the inferential statistic result revealed that the households' characteristics variable were positively related to fuel subsidy removal, significant at 1%, except households' age. For sustainability, attention should be focused on workers' wages and salaries increase, family planning and transportation costs reduction as these may alleviate hardship of fuel subsidy removal on low-income earners in Nigeria.