The Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mallam Mele Kyari has given a firm assurance that the Corporation will become a company of exellence and should be able to declare dividends to Nigerians and its shareholders by the end of 2020.
Kyari spoke on Friday, at a media parley with Energy Correspondents in Abuja.
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 should be able to declare dividends to #Nigerians in spite of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The GMD, who spoke on wide-ranging issues and developments within the NNPC group and the larger Oil & Gas Industry added: “We went ahead and published the 2019 audited report and were 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 N800bn. We have improved efficiency by cutting 97% in our losses”.
“I have been around in this company for 29 years and have worked closely with top management of the NNPC for about 15 years. This is the only President who has never asked NNPC to do something. Under no circumstances has President Muhammadu Buhari controlled what we want to do.
“NNPC has never published its audited financial statement in 43 years. We came & started doing that & released the 2018 financial statement. We were not afraid of doing that & there were a lot of criticisms that we lost money in refinery operations & pipeline business.
“These are truly difficult times for our Industry. But I am proud to say that we were able to maintain our obligations to the Federation Account for seven months without any fail despite the huge impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the oil and gas industry”, Kyari added.