Presidency explains what Buhari did to make NNPC declare profit

The Presidency has revealed how the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) was able to declare a profit despite a year plagued by the COVID-19 pandemic.

This was contained in a statement issued on Friday by the Media Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari, Femi Adesina, via a piece titled ‘How Buhari Broke The Jinx At NNPC’, posted on his Facebook page.

According to Adesina, the NNPC was able to declare a net profit after tax of N287 billion in a COVID-19-hit year because the President did not turn it into a personal purse.

“Well, it happened because perhaps for the first time in the history of the country, and of the NNPC, there is a President who is not using the place like a personal Automated Teller Machine (ATM),” he noted.

“He (Buhari) is not collecting millions upon millions of dollars by fiat, nor is he giving directives for any under-the-table deal. And that President also happens to be the Minister for Petroleum Resources.”

The presidential aide listed some of the steps taken by the management of the NNPC, attributing them to previous remarks by the NNPC Group Managing Director, Mele Kyari.

The NNPC also took its transparency drive further by publishing its audited financial statement for the 2018 and 2019 financial years on its website, he explained.

On the new order of transparency in NNPC, he quoted Kyari as saying President Buhari never made any demand nor asked for anything for himself or any individual, as the minister of petroleum resources.

READ ALSO: NNPC declares first net profit in 44 years, as Buhari praises management

“NNPC is transforming from an integrated oil and gas company into an energy company, Mele Kyari disclosed. And quite contrary to the opacity of the past, operations of the energy company are as transparent as possible. His words:

“Over the past one and a half years, we have tried to keep that promise by sustaining the publication of our Monthly Financial and Operations Report (MFOR). No company, to my knowledge, does this.

“We have taken our transparency drive a notch higher by publishing our Audited Financial Statement for the 2018 and 2019 financial years on our website for all interested persons to see the significant turnaround in our performance recording 99.8% year-on-year,” Adesina said.

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