By Dayo Omoogun
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation says it has recorded a 99.7 per cent reduction in its loss profile from ₦803billion in 2018 to ₦1.7billion in 2019.
This was disclosed by the Corporation in its 2019 Audited Financial Statement, released Thursday by its spokesman, Dr Kennie Obateru, in Abuja.
The corporation had earlier published its 2018 Audited Financial Statement in May 2020 with the Group Managing Director, Mele Kyari assuring that the publication of the statement will be sustained, a promise which has so far been fulfilled with the 2019 report just released.
This, According to NNPC Group Managing Director Malam Mele Kyar, was in line with the effort to ensure transparency and accountability in its operations.
Obateru, quoted the NNPC Chief Financial Officer, Mr Umar Ajiya, as saying that the 2019 AFS was concluded five months after the release of that of 2018.
A breakdown of the report disclosed that general administrative expenses also witnessed a 22 per cent dip from ₦894bn in 2018 to ₦696bn in 2019.
According to the Corporation’s Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Umar Ajiya, majority of the subsidiaries posted improved performance.
This includes Nigerian Petroleum Development Company Limited (NPDC) which recorded ₦479 billion profit in 2019 compared with ₦179billion in 2018, representing 167 per cent increase, Integrated Data Sciences Limited (IDSL) recorded ₦23billion profit in 2019 compared with ₦154million in 2018, representing 149.66 per cent increase.
Also, the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC) recorded ₦14.2billion profit in 2019 compared with the ₦9.3billion recorded in 2018, representing 52 per cent increase.
“Also, the refineries maintained the same level of losses as in 2018 but which will reduce significantly in 2020 due to cost optimisation drive,” the CFO said.
Ajiya listed cost optimisation, contracts renegotiation and operational efficiency as the main factors responsible for the improved performance in 2019 reports.
“The 2019 AFS goes further to demonstrate our unwavering commitment to the principle of Transparency, Accountability, and Performance Excellence while the outlook for 2020 looks promising in view of the management’s strong drive to prune down running cost and grow revenues,” he said.