Inefficiency, corruption in NNPC reason for Nigeria's failure to meet OPEC quota- CNPP
The CNPP in a statement by its Secretary General, Chief
Willy Ezugwu, said that to continue to see the monetary policy of the Central
Bank of Nigeria, CBN, as responsible for continuing crash of the naira against
the dollar amounts to taking the blame game of appointees in the Buhari
administration too far, insisting that “the CBN cannot be blamed when the
country is not meeting its OPEC production quota as an economy that mainly depends
on crude oil revenues.
The CNPP was reacting to media reports credited to the
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, who confirmed
that Nigeria was not meeting its OPEC production quota due to oil theft.
Faulting the Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPC Limited,
Mallam Mele Kyari, who corroborated the Minister's position and lamented that
Nigeria was currently losing about $2 billion monthly to the activities of oil
vandals, the CNPP noted that the “claim was aimed at shielding himself and the
company's management team from any blame.
“The country is obviously facing revenue challenges as a
mono-economy and the only viable sector for earning foreign exchange is managed
by corrupt appointees of the present administration.
“According to media reports, as at June this year, Nigeria
has incurred an estimated petrol subsidy to the tune of N2.1 trillion in the
first six months of 2022. This is besides crude oil the NNPC illegally swap
traditionally to sustain a corrupt subsidy regime.
“The World Bank had said in its recent Nigeria Development
Update report that “due to the petrol subsidy and low oil production, Nigeria
faces a potential fiscal time bomb.”
“In this 2022, the Federal Government initially budgeted
N443 billion for petrol subsidy between January and June but the approval of
the National Assembly in April to subsidise the product to the tune of N4
trillion this year.
“As we continue to fund corruption in the NNPC under the
guise of petrol subsidy, recent data from NNPC presentation to the Federal
Accounts Allocation Committee, FAAC, showed that the NNPC has continued to be
handicapped in meeting its remittance obligations and blames it on subsidy
burden.
“The NNPC paid N327.06 billion as subsidy in May, representing
a 20.4 percent increase from the previous month and the highest on record this
year, just as the now rebranded oil firm also paid N210.38 billion, N219.78
billion, N245.77 billion, and N271.59 billion as subsidy on petrol in January,
February, March and April, respectively.
“It is unfortunate that NNPC Limited has since inherited a
management team that has failed in all respects, including its inability to
remit revenues in due season, lack of transparency in subsidy payments, and
gross inefficiency in revenue generation.
“It is worrisome that NNPC, for over ten months, has been
unable to meet OPEC production quota due to gross inefficiency and corruption
but, as part of the blame game of President Buhari's appointees, oil-thieves
must be painted as solely responsible in order to remain in office.
“It has become very clear that we cannot continue to blame
the monetary policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for continuing
free-fall of the naira or the sharp fluctuations in the exchange rate against
the dollar when NNPC has consistently remained incapable of meeting Nigeria's
OPEC production quota for months.
“The CNPP, therefore, urges President Muhammadu Buhari to take very decisive steps towards ending the endemic corruption and gross inefficiency in NNPC if Nigeria will ever meet its OPEC production quota in the near future,” CNPP added.
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