Even as many Nigerians are groaning under the present economic hardship the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) reportedly spent a whopping sum of N7.3 billion on entertainment expenses in the 16 months in 2021/2022.
This is according to the financial record published in December 2022.
The persistent concern on the issue of accountability in the NNPC necessitated calls for the organisation to publish its financial statements.
With 2024 already in its seventh month, the NNPC is yet to publish its 2023 financial statements.
A review of the financial statements of the NNPCL has shown that its subsidiaries posted short-term debts to the tune of N83 billion in 2022.
According to the financial statements of the NNPCL for December 2022, Nikorma transport Trade and other payables (debts) stood at N4.5 billion, West Africa LPG Limited trade payable figure stood at N79.2 billion, while that of Hyson Nigeria limited was N15 million.
The West Africa LPG limited trades as a vehicle for offtake, marketing and trading of Liquified Natural Gas. On its website, it identified itself as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and Ocean Bed Trading Limited.
In total, the debts accumulated by these subsidiaries was N83 billion.
These organisations also posted losses, the financial statements of the NNPC show.
The organisation noted that it could not get any profit from Nikorma Transport and West Africa LPG due to the fact that the accumulated loss of both organisations was greater than the profit posted by the NNPC subsidiaries.
For instance, the NNPC group share of profit for West Africa LPG stood at N807 million while as of June 2022, the accumulated loss stood at N1 billion.
SaharaReporters also noted that for instance the NNPCL wrote off debts to the tune of N140 billion in three years between 2019 and 2021.
One of the NNPCL subsidiary gave out loans worth N2 billion to employees despite recording zero profit in 2021.
Previous financial statements show NNPC funding loss-making subsidiaries amid operational concerns.
This development also comes where the NNPCL has been announced as obtaining different crude backed loans. In 2023, it was announced that the NNPC Limited obtained a $3 billion crude backed loan.
The Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has also accused the NNPCL Of failing to remit N2.8 trillion tax to the government coffers in 2022.
Olufemi Soneye, Chief Corporate Communications Officer of the NNPCL, while reacting to NATIONAL WAVES’ inquiry said there was no iota of truth in the report. He simply replied “False”
NATIONAL WAVES prodded further to know how much was spent on Entertainment In 2022 from Mr. Soneye via WhatsApp message but was yet to get a reply as at the time of filing this report.
