…NNPC warms up for IPO
The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation NNPC Mr Mele Kyari on Thursday declared that days of declaring losses by the national oil company were over, as it has been planted on progress path to yield desired dividends to Nigerians
Speaking at a media briefing to announce the Profit After Tax of N287 billion made by the NNPC in 2020, Kyari attributed it to deliberate efforts to cut costs and its refrain from delving into toxic ventures.
According to him, plans were afoot to make the NNPC a public liability company in future via an initial public offer so that Nigerians can own stakes in it.
He thanked President Muhammadu Buhari, who doubles as the Minister of Petroleum, for not interfering in the running of the corporation.
He also appreciated the board members, management and staff of the corporation for their hard work and support.
He said: “The success came from doing things differently. When the incumbent administration came in 2015, a new operational template was installed which centres on cutting costs, increased transparency, etc. Buhari’s template led to what we have now. When I came, I continued from where my predecessor stopped.
“We were careful about what to invest in. This led to loss reduction in 2019 and a profit in 2020. It’s indeed a collective activity.
“We stopped buying what we didn’t need. We engaged our contractors to pull down costs by 30%. We also got logistics cost reduction, low borrowing cost and all that.
“The N287 billion is profit after tax. Either we add to it our capitalisation or decide what to do as the board decides”, he explained.
SOURCE: OperaNews