Kyari Says ‘I Broke 43-years Jinx of Non-publication of Audited Financial Report at NNPC’
By Abisola THOMPSON
NNPC GMD, Mallam Mele Kyari, during a media parley with energy journalists under the auspices of the Association of Energy Correspondents of Nigeria (NAEC) in Abuja…Friday, Nov. 20, 2020.
Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mallam Mele Kyari, says he broke a 43-years-long jinx of non-publication of audited financial report at the corporation.
The GMD, who spoke on wide-range of issues and developments within the @NNPCgroup and the larger Oil & Gas Industry, insisted that: “NNPC has never published its audited financial statement in 43 years. We came and started doing that and released the 2018 financial statement which showed that NNPC lost N803 billion.
“We were not afraid of doing that and there were a lot of criticisms that we lost money in refinery operations and pipeline business.
“We went ahead and published the 2019 audited report and was 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 N800 billion.
“That means we reduced 97 per cent of our losses by cutting our cost and improving our efficiency.”
He said that the NNPC was able to maintain its obligations to the Federation Account for seven months without fail in spite of the huge impact of the coronavirus on the oil and gas industry.
Mele Kyari says he is optimistic that the corporation will declare dividends in 2020 in spite of the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kyari spoke at an interactive session with the Association of Energy Correspondents of Nigeria (NAEC) in Abuja on Friday.
He said: “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 will declare dividends to Nigerians in spite of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Kyari said that accountability and transparency were key to turning NNPC into an efficient and profit-oriented enterprise.
He said this was what informed the decision of the corporation to publish its operational and financial reports monthly.
