Dataphyte has released a special report based on the recent 2018 Audited Financial Statements published by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, NNPC. Dataphyte’s report analysed data from these accounts, identifying discrepancies and citing workable suggestions.
In the years that followed the Federal government’s removal of the fuel subsidy, the state-owned oil firm, NNPC has been the subject of discourse. The dialogue centred around corruption allegations and funds mismanagement around the NNPC.
Elsewhere, the government’s transparency initiative, Open Government Partnership (OGP) came on the scene, poised to tackle the overall corruption challenge.
This drive also promised to tackle corruption challenges in the oil sector, assuring fiscal transparency. In furtherance to this, NNPC became a supporting company for the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), the global standard for accountability in extractive industries. EITI requires member states and institutions like NNPC to “publicly disclose taxes and payments; ensure comprehensive disclosure of taxes and payments made to all EITI implementing countries.”
So in reality, NNPC’s move, though historic, was requisite. Overall, it is a laudable action, first in over four decades. However, for others, the move was reminiscent of tokenism as some formats published by the oil regulator were unreadable.
Taking this into consideration, oil sector transparency is sacrosanct. It is against this backdrop that Dataphyte throws it two cents on NNPC’s Subsidiary Accounts for 2018. The media research and analytics organisation beckons on the legislative arm, anti-corruption agencies, and the media to leverage this report to demand necessary accountability from the Minister of Petroleum and the leadership of the NNPC.
Meanwhile, Mr. Paul Adeyeye, Access and Intelligence Lead for Dataphyte stated that this report is timely, especially as Nigeria awaits the review and passage of the new Petroleum Industry Bill by the National Assembly. He added that “while two decades is a long wait, it does not absolve the state-owned oil firm from answering questions regarding Nigeria’s oil and gas resource management.”
You can download the full report here.