Nigeria’s state-owned oil corporation publishes audited accounts

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has published audited financial statements online in a bid to improve transparency around its operations.

The state-owned oil company, known as NNPC, has been criticized for years of conducting the nation’s oil business in secret by publishing only unaudited financial reports.

The statements published on the company’s website yesterday were for 2018 and were signed by Chief Executive Officer Mele Kyari.

NNPC also published audited accounts online of its 20 subsidiaries and business divisions for first time.

Disclosure “is good for transparency and accountability,” Waziri Adio, executive secretary of Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative, said in a response to a private message on Twitter. “I urge them to make this a regular practice and in open data format.”

National Petroleum Investment Management Services is the group’s most profitable division, according to the statements. It reported revenue of 5.04 trillion naira ($13 billion) in 2018 and profit of 1.01 trillion naira. That compares with a loss of 1.65 trillion naira in 2017.

The report shows total assets managed by NAPIMS at 18.6 trillion naira, with the oil and gas components valued at 14.2 trillion naira.

Its oil production subsidiary, the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, reported a post-tax profit of 179 billion naira in 2018.

The corporation’s three refineries reported a combined loss of 154 billion naira with the Kaduna refinery recording zero revenue for that year. NNPC didn’t publish consolidated audited accounts for the group.

“Over the years, NNPC has been rated as a cesspool, providing slush funds for politicians,” said Oluseun Onigbinde, director at Lagos-based BudgIT, a civic group that lobbies for government transparency. “They have been trying to change the perspective since 2015 with the publication of monthly reports and the 2018 audited statements is also a step forward.”