Written by: Ubong Sampson – Uyo
A Professor of Economics and former Commissioner for Economic Development in Akwa Ibom state, Prof. Emmanuel Onwiduokit has expressed doubts over the recently declared N287bn profit by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), describing it as suspicious.
Speaking with our correspondent, the economic expert said the report is only seen in the news with claims of it breaking a 44 years record, without any financial statement to lead the masses into how this profit came about.
The University of Uyo Don further questioned the possibility of recording such profit, referring to the amount of money the government pays as subsidy as part of the reason, while adding that though the report will be a welcome development if true, the corporation’s profit claim would have appeared more transparent if it were published alongside a financial statement to that effect, at least to, according to him, see the overall operating expenses and cost component.
According to a disclosure by the Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mele Kyari in June 2021, claiming that the open price of Premium Motor Spirit, (PMS) has risen to N256 per litre, the estimated cost of subsidising the product which sold at 162, stood at about N9.6bn daily.
Also doubting the veracity of NNPC’s profit claim is the founder of IBTC Stanbic Bank, Atedo Peterside who has challenged the corporation to clarify allegations that it dipped its fingers in the federation account in order to announce a profit of N287bn.
Peterside’s challenge went through a tweet on Sunday, drawing the NNPC’s attention to an allegation that it dipped fingers into the Federation Cookie Jar in order to announce bumper 2020 profits, asking the corporation to come clean and publish details of all dividends it received and tell Nigerians which ones they recently diverted from the Federation account to personal ones
In a 19 April 2021, it was reported that the total revenue generated by the NNPC from crude oil and gas exports plunged by 45.98 per cent in 2020 amid the COVID-19-induced collapse in price and demand.
The report said Nigeria’s revenue from the exports of crude oil and gas fell to $2.62bn in 2020 from $4.85bn in 2019. It added that proceeds from the sale of domestic crude oil and gas also dropped to N1.54tn in 2020 from N1.57tn in 2019.
