By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has announced a 28 per cent or N749 billion growth in profit to N3.297 trillion for the financial year ending December 2023 from the N2.548 trillion recorded in the 2022 financial year.
At a press conference on Monday at the NNPC Towers in Abuja, the Chief Financial Officer of NNPC, Mr Umar Ajiya, said N2.1 trillion is the final dividend for the period under review.
“Our fiscal performance reflects both strategic foresight and operational resilience. Despite inherent challenges of our operational and economic environment, we have improved the productivity and the financial performance of this great company,” Mr Ajiya stated.
This comes after the state oil firm faced significant losses in the past and first reported a profit in 2020 and has since shown a steady increase in profitability.
Business Post reports that in 2018, NNPC recorded a loss of N803 billion, which was reduced to N1.7 billion in 2019. This changed in 2020, when it recorded a profit of N287 billion in 2020, and then jumped to N674.1 billion in 2021, before skyrocketing to N2.548 trillion in 2022.
Also speaking, the Chairman of the NNPC Board, Mr Pius Akinyelure, credited the success of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021 and the dedicated efforts of the Board, Management, and staff.
“The excellent performance came as the fruit of the PIA 2021, the commitment of the Board, Management and staff of the company,” he said.
Adding her input, the Executive Vice President for Upstream, Mrs Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, said the NNPC has also set an ambitious target of reaching 2 million barrels per day in crude oil production by the end of December 2024.
She attributed this goal to recent improvements in tackling crude oil theft and pipeline vandalism.
“With improvements witnessed as a result of the renewed vigour in the war against crude oil theft and pipeline vandalism, NNPC Ltd is targeting 2 million barrels per day crude oil production by the end of the year,” she stated.
Further analysis will be done when the financial statement is made public by the NNPC.