New data has shown managers of Kaduna Refinery give out an employee loan worth N2 billion despite not refining a single barrel of crude oil.
The key function of the Kaduna refinery is the refining of Crude oil but perhaps, even if that function is not carried out, employees have nothing to worry about, aside from their salary and allowances, they can collect a huge quantum of loans, easy work-life and still get larger than life financial benefit.
A review of the audited statement of the company for 2021 reveals that between 2020 and 2021, the company gave out loans worth N2.171 billion to its employees.
The breakdown of the loans shows that in 2020, the sum of N1.180 billion was recorded as employee loan while another N991 million was recorded in 2021 as employee loan.
A study of the financial statement shows that the monies were yet to be paid back by the staff as it was recorded as “receivables’.
An explanation offered by the company shows that “the loans are interest-free loans granted to staff members to purchase motor vehicles, and are usually secured with the employee’s retirement benefit obligation held by the parent company, NNPC”.
Ideally, if a company does not make money, it should not have excess enough to grant long-term loans to its employees but that is a different case for the Kaduna refinery company, especially as the loans that were given and yet to be repaid, have a three-six years tenor and are also interest-free.
As of the last quarter of 2021, the staff strength of the company stood at 525 persons, a drop from 630 persons at the beginning of the year.
If the number of staff for 2021 stands at the maximum number of 630 persons registered at the beginning of the year, it would mean that each staff member of the company got loans worth N1.573 million on average in 2021.
There have been concerns about how the Nigerian Oil company is managed, with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Ltd unable to remit monies to the federation account, yet its subsidiaries have more than enough to give out as loans in billions of naira.
Kaduna refinery company’s largesse is despite the fact that between 2020 and 2021, it was indebted to its parent company (NNPC) to the sum of N1.06 trillion, meaning that the money it was given as credit by the NNPC Ltd, maybe the same it is using to give credit to its own employees, even at the failure of its operations.
This development comes at a time when Nigeria which owns the NNPCL and its subsidiaries battles with fiscal issues, unable to meet its financial obligations and has impact on the developmental needs of the country.