By Nathaniel Zacchaeus, Abuja
The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, (NNPCL), Mele Kyari said yesterday that the firm remitted N4.5trn between January and October this year.
He stated this on when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Finance to defend his 2024 budget.
Kyari said the company has never had a better situation than it does now as the transition to a limited liability company has boosted the company’s image.
He said the NNPCL is currently getting the trust of everyone including the financial institution globally, who were lending to it so that it can do business.
He said the bold step taken by President Bola Tinubu also saved the company from liquidation.
He said, “The company is a creation of the National Assembly. We are paying our taxes, we are paying royalties we are delivering dividends to Nigerians.
“In this year alone up to October, we were able to deliver N4.5tr of revenue to the federation account, this company is changing, perhaps this is the most transparent National Oil Company in Africa.
“The reason is very simple because this is the requirement of the law so the conviction of the company that to become transparent to the shareholders is the right thing to do.
“The end effect is that we are delivering value and also working and getting the support of all Stakeholders particularly the National Assembly to support all our processes around crude oil theft and other associated infractions and we are seeing results.
“More than anything else the support for this company is coming from the executive, particularly the President to make sure that we deliver value to this country.
“We make sure that we engage and deliver gas into our domestic market, it is very critical to national development. Prosperity for this country will depend on our ability to deliver power, deliver gas-based industries into this country and we have seen the focus, we have seen the trajectory.
“This country is stabilising, the microeconomic indices are changing and we have also seen stability in the Foreign Exchange in the market.
“People do see the high value of the dollar but what is important is that within the next quarter, I believe very strongly that the gap between the import window and that of the parallel market will close and that is the spark of prosperity in our country, we are on a threshold of history and this country will prosper.”
