The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) withheld 12 percent more money in six months under President Muhammadu Buhari than it did with his predecessor from 2013 to 2014, TheCable reports..
According to a report by the National Resource Governance Institute (NGRI), an international non-profit policy institute with focus on oil, gas and minerals, NNPC withheld more in the last six months of 2015 than in the first six.
“Under the Buhari government, transfers from NNPC’s convoluted oil sales system to the Federation Account have continued to decline,” the report read.
“After analyzing NNPC’s own numbers, we estimate that during the last six months of 2015, the corporation transferred $2.1 billion in oil proceeds to the Federation Account from the three types of oil sales we examined: regular export sales, domestic crude sales, and sales of oil from NPDC fields.
“During that same period, however, the value of these sales totaled $6.3 billion. In other words, under the Buhari government, only one third of NNPC’s oil sale revenues found their way into the country’s treasury.
“The figures show that NNPC retained $4.2 billion in the last six months of 2016, 14 percent more than what was withheld in (Goodluck) Jonathan’s last days as president.
“NNPC reported retaining $4.2 billion—or 66 percent—of the value of the oil sold through these three types of transactions.
“As seen in the figures below, this was 14 percent more than the corporation’s withholdings under Goodluck Jonathan in the first half of 2015, and 12 percent higher than the share withheld in 2013 and 2014.
“Go back a decade, and the numbers nearly flip: in 2005, NNPC sent 68 percent of its oil sale earnings to the Federation Account and kept only 32 percent.”
The report, which was compiled based on NEITI financial audit reports, NNPC financial reports, and NRGI’s investigations, revealed that NNPC withheld 52%, 52% and 59% of its revenue in 2013, 2014 and 2015 respectively
