By Chioma Iruke
Nigerian business mogul and founder of Stanbic IBTC Bank, Atedo Peterside, has challenged the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to clarify allegations that it dipped its fingers in the federation account in order to announce a profit of N287bn.
In a tweet on Sunday, Peterside said, “There is an allegation that NNPC dipped their fingers in the Federation Cookie Jar in order to announce bumper 2020 profits; they should come clean and publish details of all dividends received by them and tell us which ones they recently diverted from the Federation to themselves.”
It would be recalled that in April this year, it was reported that the total revenue generated by the NNPC from crude oil and gas exports plunged by 45.98 per cent in 2020, amid the COVID-19-induced collapse in price and demand.
The report said Nigeria’s revenue from the exports of crude oil and gas fell to $2.62bn in 2020 from $4.85bn in 2019.
It added that proceeds from the sale of domestic crude oil and gas also dropped to N1.54tn in 2020 from N1.57tn in 2019.
Last Friday, Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari had announced for the first time in 44 years, that the company made a net profit of N287bn.
The President said, “I am pleased to announce the declaration of profit after tax of N287bn in year 2020 by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. This is sequel to the completion of the statutory annual audit exercise for year 2020.
“The NNPC losses were reduced from N803bn in year 2018 to N1.7bn in year 2019 and the eventual declaration of net profit in year 2020 for the first time in its 44-year history.”
