GLOBAL transparency body, Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), has scored the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) very high in its latest global assessment.
In a statement issued on Saturday, NNPCL Chief Corporate Communications Officer, Olufemi O. Soneye, said the assessment rating was disclosed by EITI’s Deputy Executive Director, Mr Bady Baldé, during a visit by an EITI delegation to the Group Chief Executive Officer of the NNPCL, Mr Mele Kyari, in Abuja on Thursday.
According to the statement, Baldé, who said the delegation’s visit was to communicate the group’s findings in its recent global assessment to the company said NNPCL fared very well among companies in the same category, adding that only Equinox of Norway fared better than NNPCL in the assessment.
He, however, said there was still room for NNPCL to improve, urging the company to maintain its active engagement in its Nigerian unit, the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI).
Earlier in his welcome remarks, Kyari highlighted some of the key changes in the NNPCL’s operations since its transformation into a commercially focused limited liability company in 2021.
He acknowledged that the company’s partnership with EITI/NEITI has made it a much more reliable company.
He, however, expressed disappointment with NEITI for going public with its report that NNPCL failed to remit some monies into the Federation Account instead of seeking clarification on any perceived gap in its assessment.
He explained that NNPCL was holding no public funds back and that what NEITI reported as non-remittance was what was due to the company as payment for taking the burden of fuel subsidy on behalf of the Federal Government.
He disclosed that NNPCL would have released its Audited Financial Statement (AFS) for 2022 since June 2023 but could not do so because it had no substantive Board of Directors at that time, adding that the AFS will be published on the company’s website in the next few days.
Meanwhile, the Permanent Representative of the Centre for Convention on Democratic Integrity (CDDI) to the ECOSOC-United Nations and Chairman of the Civil Society Policy Forum of World Bank/ African Countries Caucus, Comrade Olufemi Aduwo, has also extolled the impressive growth recorded so far in NNPCL by the Kyari-led administration.
In a statement issued on Saturday, Comrade Aduwo said the obvious fact that Kyari’s result-driven reforms have fetched NNPCL over N3.4 trillion in the last three years is highly commendable given the financial losses the corporation had always recorded before he came on board.
He said, “Nigeria should not forget in a hurry the relentless efforts of Mallam Kyari that culminated in the successful passage of the Petroleum Industry Act 2021. Specifically, Mallam Kyari has gone a step further to initiate new investment benchmarks to further rejuvenate the once ineffective company. Nigeria’s oil and gas industry is now on a transformative path, unlocking opportunities for growth and prosperity in the sector.”
He stressed that there is a bright chance of NNPCL recording greater achievement in the future given what Mallam Kyari’s administration has so far accomplished despite the burgeoning pipeline vandalism, and surging oil theft.
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