BudgIT commends the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation(NNPC) for publishing the
audited accounts of its subsidiaries and business divisions for the first time; and also
launching the OpenData segment on its website, as a measure to promote transparency in its
financial operations. There is no doubt that the Mele-Kyari led NNPC management has blazed
the trail by making the audited report of all NNPC’s subsidiaries available online.
For the past four years, BudgIT, through the Extractives Consultative Forum and with support
from the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI), has been engaging key oil and gas
stakeholders annually; including officials from Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation,
NNPC, Department of Petroleum Resources, Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Civil Society
Organisations and private individuals. These engagements have centered on ways by which
the NNPC can become more transparent, assume, and maintain the status of a commercially
viable entity, as its consecutive losses are not sustainable in the long term.
A financially viable and transparent NNPC is pivotal to the Nigerian Economy as the
government still largely depends on revenue from oil to finance its budgets. Over the years,
BudgIT has consistently requested that the NNPC should make its audited report available to
citizens in addition to publishing its monthly financial and operations reports, to further
ensure transparency and accountability. In our last policy brief on NNPC reforms titled “NNPC: The burden of Africa’s Oil and Gas Giant”, making NNPC’s audit report public was one
of the 7 recommendations for reforms we put forward.
“Launching an OpenData segment on its official website is a very commendable step by the
NNPC. We encourage Nigerians to download the audit reports and other data put up by
NNPC, study them, and Ask Questions,” says Adejoke Akinbode, a Project Officer with
BudgIT’s Extractive Department.
While these are important steps regarding transparency, more still has to be done by the
Federal Government to reform the NNPC. “The Federal Government needs to reform the
NNPC to reverse the trend of the massive losses recorded by some of the NNPC subsidiaries,
annually. This audit report is a laudable step towards showing Nigerians the true picture of
what is going on in NNPC.” added Gabriel Okeowo, BudgIT’s Principal Lead.
Signed
Iyanu Fatoba
Communications Associate, BudgIT
