The Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mallam Mele Kyari has said that the Corporation was able to maintain its obligations to the Federation Account for seven months without any fail despite the huge impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Oil and Gas industry.
Mele Kyari said this at a media parley with the energy journalists on Friday in Abuja. He spoke on wide-ranging issues and developments within the NNPC and the larger Oil & Gas Industry.
“NNPC has never published its audited financial statement in 43 years .We came and started doing that and released the 2018 financial statement. We were not afraid of doing that and there were a lot of criticisms that we lost money in refinery operations and pipeline business, Mele Kyari said.
He further said, “We went ahead and published the 2019 audited report and were able to learn and cut cost and became more efficient. There is no company in the country which has cut its losses within one financial year by N800bn. We have improved efficiency by cutting 97% in our losses.”
On President Buhari’s interference with NNPC activities, Kyari said, “I have been around in this company for 29 years and have worked closely with top management of the NNPC for about 15 years. This is the only President who has never asked NNPC to do something. Under no circumstances has President Buhari controlled what we want to do”
“Our vision is that NNPC will become a company of excellence and declare dividends to Nigerians and shareholders. We are optimistic that at the end of 2020, NNPC should be able to declare dividends to Nigerians in spite of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, he concluded.
