The incorporation of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited as a limited liability company costs Africa’s biggest economy the sum of N1.49 billion, Dataphyte learnt.
The incorporation of a company refers to the legal process used to form a corporate entity.
Checks by Dataphyte showed that Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited was incorporated on September 22, 2021, with the registration number: RC — 1843987, a development in line with section 53(1) of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
Data sourced from the state-owned company financial statement showed the total amount spent on the NNPC Ltd registration stood at N2.999 billion; the cost of CAC registration stood at N1.49 billion, while N1.5 billion was spent on stamp duties to the Federal Inland Revenue Service.
Energy experts have raised red flags about the amount spent by the NNPCL to register with the Corporate Affairs Commission.
A legal expert who deals with the incorporation of companies, Barrister Awosusi Kehinde, told Dataphyte the amount spent on the registration of the NNPCL with the Corporate Affairs Commission raises questions.
He questioned why the NNPCL will spend such an amount of money on registration with the Corporate Affairs Commission while challenging the company to release the detailed financials on how N1.49 billion was spent on registration with the Corporate Affairs Commission.
Dataphyte reached out to the Spokesperson of NNPCL, Garba Deen Mohammed, to seek clarifications on how the amount quoted in the officially released audit report for 2021 was spent.
After listening to the claims by Dataphyte on what the audited report stated, he promised to check the document and call back, but he did not call back.
Days after, he was called again, while he picked the call and acknowledged that Dataphyte had reached out to him earlier, he stated the same thing he said when previously reached, telling our reporter “I will call you back, I will call you back”.
Dataphyte findings on the Corporate Affairs Commission shows that it costs N15,000 for every one million share capital or part thereof (for public shares).
This would mean that if all monies paid to the CAC are for shares and at the total of N1.49 billion paid by the NNPCL to the Corporate Affairs Commission (based on 2021 audited financial statements), the NNPCL is supposed to have 99.333 billion share capital.
The process of incorporation as a Public company limited by shares as stated on the Corporate Affairs Commission website, includes; Checking for availability of proposed company’s name, completing pre-registration form and upload of relevant documents (using CAC’s company registration portal and paying of filing and stamp duties).
The NNPCL has been reported overtime has stated that it would list 40% of its shares on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, although it has not been officially announced that such listing has been done with the NSE as at the time of this report.
Attempts to reach the Corporate Affairs Commission through the official number listed on its website proved abortive. The number was said to be non-assigned to a customer when tried via different network providers.