Again, NNPC publishes 2019 Audited Financial Statement, shows improvement in some subsidiaries

To consolidate on the gains of the public goodwill that trailed the publication of its 2018 Audited Financial Statement, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation on Thursday followed up with the release of its 2019 Audited Accounts.

Details of the report, the second under the Mele Kyari’s leadership as the Group Managing Director, the NNPC said in a statement, showed a 99.7 per cent recovery from its overall loss position of N803 billion in 2018 to a positive ledger of N1.7billion in 2019.

The NNPC statement, signed by its spokesperson, Kennie Obateru, quoted the corporation’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Umar Ajiya, as saying that the 2019 Audited Financial Statement, was concluded five months since the publication of the 2018 Audited Financial Statement.

Mr Obateru said the latest report would be published on the Corporation’s website “in keeping with the Management’s commitment to transparency and accountability and in consonance with the principles of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) of which it is a partner.”

The CFO said the 2019 financial statement showed that general administrative expenses also dropped by about 22 per cent, from N894billion in 2018 to N696billion in 2019.

He said the majority of the NNPC subsidiaries posted significant improvements in their performances during the year under review.

The affected subsidiaries include the upstream exploration and production arm of the corporation, the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company Limited (NPDC) recorded a N479 billion profit, compared to about N179Billion realized the previous year, about 167 per cent increase.

Also, the report said the Integrated Data Sciences Limited (IDSL) in charge of NNPC’s data information, recorded over 14,835 per cent increase in profit, from about N23 billion in 2019 to N154 million in 2018, while the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC) profit grew by 52 per cent, from N9.3Billion in 2018 to about N14.2 billion in 2019.

“The improved performances reported in the 2019 financial year was driven mainly by cost optimization, contracts renegotiation and operational efficiency,” the CFO said.

“The 2019 AFS goes further to demonstrate our (NNPC) unwavering commitment to the principle of Transparency, Accountability and Performance Excellence (TAPE), while the outlook for 2020 looks promising in view of the Management’s strong drive to prune down running cost and grow revenues,” he added.

The subsidiaries that have been stuck with the losses are the four refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna, which emerged the worst performers in 2018, although the CFO gave the assurance of significant improvement in 2020 due to cost optimization driven by the management.

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During the publication of the first audited financial statement in June, Mr Kyari had promised to sustain the exercise as part of the corporation’s efforts to deepen transparency and accountability and keep stakeholders abreast of NNPC operations and progress.

In his reaction on the latest publication, an elated NNPC GMD told PREMIUM TIMES on Thursday his management was committed to sustain the openness and greater transparency he has set out to tread in the operations of the NNPC.

“The publication of the 2019 Audited Financial Statements is a buildup on the publication of the 2018 report released in June. It is in pursuance of transparency, accountability and effective service delivery. It is clear that if the moment is sustained, we will, in no distant future, declare dividend to our shareholders who have kept faith with the corporation for a long time,” Mr Kyari said.