Wale Edun, Nigeria’s Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy has hinted of plans by the federal government to probe the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL.
The minister disclosed this on Wednesday in Abuja at the launch of the Nigeria Development Update, NDU, titled “Turning the Corner, Time to Move from Reforms to Results”.
“There will be earnest scrutiny and I am sure NNPCL is getting ready for that. We want revenue to come into the government coffers from NNPCL and all other revenue agencies,” Edun said as a panelist at the event.
Not a few Nigerians, including human rights groups have demanded the probe of the government-controlled oil firm. The management of proceeds from crude oil sales has remained opaque, critics of the company said.
Speaking recently at an event in Abuja, the nation’s capital, a former Emir of Kano state, Lamido Sanusi accused the NNPCL of failure to remit enough dollars from crude oil sales to the federation Account.
NNPCL’s action, he explained, is responsible for the acute dollar shortages in the country.
The former Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Governor also called for a thorough investigation of the NNPCL.
Sanusi said, “The exchange rate needs to be stabilised and we have to address the fundamental question, why is there no money coming in? Why is the NNPCL not able to bring in dollars? Am sorry this is the question that cost me my job and I will continue asking this question until NNPCL fixes it up or until I die. Where are the dollars? We need to shine a light on the NNPCL.
“The finance minister cannot tell you because he doesn’t have a monitoring system that reports to him. The finance minister can’t tell you how many barrels of petrol we produce and export. It is only the NNPCL that can give those figures. The finance ministry needs to know how much oil we produce daily, how much we sell, and where the money is going.
“We are no longer paying subsidies so where are the dollars? It was under recovery during the subsidy era and that has been stopped, so where is the money? This was the issue I raised for which I was suspended, well you can suspend me again. The NNPCL is the most opaque oil company in the world.
“When I was in the central bank for 15 years, they had not been audited. We have to follow the money from production to export to return, where is the money going? We paid N11tn in subsidy and there is no accountability up till now. The National Assembly called the NNPCL to bring the documents, but they refused,” the former CBN governor said.
