The Integrity Youth Alliance has called on the Founder of IBTC Stanbic Bank, Atedo Peterside to take time whenever he is online to go through the website of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to get the facts behind the figures of the NNPC’s N287bn profit.
In a press release on Sunday evening in Abuja, the National Coordinator of the Alliance, Kelvin Adegbenga said it is unfortunate that despite NNPC’s Monthly Financial and Operations Report including the published Audited Financial Statements 2018 and 2019; Atedo Peterside could still alleged that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation dipped its fingers in the federation account in order to announce a profit of N287bn.
“We wish to state categorically that NNPC under the management of Mallam Mele Kyari is not afraid of responsibility and accountability and the records are there to show it. In 2019, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation published the 2018 audited account. The result showed a loss of N803billion.
“This got the management adopting smarter strategies to run lean and mean; to cut cost and turn the corner. It worked. By the time it released the 2019 audited financial statement, it had achieved 99.7% reduction in its loss status, cutting loss from N803bn in 2018 to N1.7bn in 2019.
“This would never have been possible if Mele Kyari had not summoned the courage to go public with the 2018 financial statement, Adegbenga said.
It will be recalled that on Thursday, the GMD attributed the turn-around of the Corporation from a loss of ₦803bn in 2018 to profit of ₦287bn in 2020 to the aggressive implementation of cost-cutting measures, improved efficiency through business automation, emphasis on commercially-focused investments and non-interference in the management of the Corporation from any quarters.
The GMD also added that the Corporation saved a lot of cost through contract renegotiation by up to 30% on the heels of the Covid-19 pandemic, introduction of technology that drastically cut travel cost through reduction in in-person meetings and the general automation of processes that enhanced efficiency across the group’s businesses.
“We called on Atedo Peterside and his co-doubters to visit https://www.nnpcgroup.com/pages/afs.aspx and as well wait for the NNPC’s Audited Financial Statements 2020 to clear their doubt about the profit declared.
“There is a rebranded NNPC with a fresh panorama and obligation to transparency and accountability in consonance with the global principles of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) under the Management of Mele Kolo Kyari, the statement concluded.