The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has disclosed that it recorded a 99.7 per cent reduction in its loss profile from N803 billion in 2018 to N1.7 billion in 2019.
This was contained in the corporation’s 2019 audited financial statements, which were released five months after publishing its 2018 audited financial statements.
In a statement issued by the corporation’s spokesman, Mr Kennie Obateru, the NNPC Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Mr Umar Ajiya, was quoted to have said that the 2019 audited financial statement will be published on the corporation’s website for all to see in keeping with management’s commitment to transparency and accountability and in consonance with the principles of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) of which it is a partner.
Mr Ajiya noted that general administrative expenses also witnessed a 22 per cent dip from N894 billion in 2018 to N696 billion in 2019.
According to Mr Ajiya, majority of the subsidiaries posted improved performance namely, the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company Limited (NPDC) recorded a 167 per cent increase a N479 billion profit in 2019 compared to N179 billion in 2018.
He noted the Integrated Data Services Limited (IDSL) recorded N23 billion profit in 2019 compared to N154 million in 2018 representing 14,966 increase.
The Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC) recorded a N14.2 billion profit in 2019, a 52 per cent increase compared to N9.3Billion in 2018 while the refineries have maintained the same level of losses as in 2018 but which will reduce significantly in 2020 due to cost optimization drive.
The CFO explained that the improved performance in the 2019 financial year was driven mainly by cost optimisation, contracts renegotiation and operational efficiency.
He said, “the 2019 audited financial statements go further to demonstrate our unwavering commitment to the principle of Transparency, Accountability and Performance Excellence (TAPE) while the outlook for 2020 looks promising in view of the management’s strong drive to prune down running cost and grow revenues.”
It would be recalled that the Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mr Mele Kyari, had promised to sustain the publication of the corporation’s audited financial statements as part of efforts to deepen transparency and accountability and keep stakeholders abreast of NNPC operations.
