FG Will Continue to Receive Dividends Despite N1.3trn Debt—NNPC

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has revealed that the outstanding N1.3 trillion debt owed to it by the federal government won’t affect its payment of dividends to the government’s purse.

In June this year, the state oil company revealed that it was expecting a refund of about N1.3 trillion from the Federation Account as debt by the federal government.

It disclosed this when the inter-agency committee constituted by President Bola Tinubu was set to commence sitting to resolve the lingering debt row.

The federal government had accused the NNPC Limited of indebtedness to the tune of about N2.8 trillion, but the state oil company claimed that the federal government should first pay back almost N4.1 trillion, which was its unsettled outstanding claims for subsidy payments on petroleum products imports, supplies and distribution on behalf of the government.

But despite this debt by the federal government to the NNPC Limited, the company announced recently that it paid a dividend and Production Sharing Contract (PSC) profit of about N123 billion to the federal government in June.

“NNPC has remitted N123 billion (N81 billion as monthly interim dividend and N42 billion as 40 per cent PSC profit oil) in addition to compliance on payment of royalties and taxes.

“This clearly shows that the company under the leadership of Mallam Mele Kyari is moving in a positive trajectory as enshrined in the PIA (Petroleum Industry Act),” the company’s Chief Financial Officer, Mr Umar Ajiya, stated in a chat with journalists last Thursday.

The NNPC also said that the moves carried out by the company will put it in the ranks of state oil companies of countries like Saudi Arabia and China.

“This will set the track for future profitability and global best practices designed to build NNPC into a world-class oil company in the ranks of Saudi Aramco, China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation, Exxon Mobil Corporation and others,” he said.

“The goal of Mele Kyari, the group chief executive officer (GECO), NNPC, is to set the nation’s oil company on the path of profitability and sustainable growth.

“Since the transformation of the NNPC from a loss-making organisation pre-PIA to a robust profit-making company post-PIA, the company under Kyari has pursued global governance best practices aimed at repositioning the company for greater growth,” Mr Ajiya noted.