The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, has clarified the non-remittance of $2 billion into the federation account in 2022 as reported by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI).
According to the Group CEO of NNPC Ltd, Mele Kyari, the NEITI report alleging non-remittance of $2 billion in taxes to the federation account is incorrect. He said that NNPCL was not holding any public funds back and 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.
NEITI, in its ‘2021 Oil and Gas Industry Report’, released in September 2023, had said NNPC did not remit $2 billion in taxes to the federal government in 2022.
The NNPC Ltd boss, Kyari, however has expressed disappointment with NEITI for going public with its report that NNPC failed to remit some monies into the federation account without seeking clarification on any perceived gap in its assessment.
According to a statement by the NNPCL Chief Corporate Communications Officer, Olufemi Soneye, Kyari made this known during a visit by a delegation from the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), at the headquarters of the NNPCL in Abuja.
Kyari also revealed that NNPC would have published 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.
In his remarks during the visit, Bady Baldé, EITI’s Deputy Executive Director, said EITI had scored the NNPC very high in its latest global assessment and added that adhering to global EITI standards will increase the company’s credibility.