NNPC Fights Back: Nigeria Oil Money Is Not Missing

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has denied the accusations by the Governor of Central Bank Sanusi Lamido Sanusi that it had not remitted $20bn to the Federation account.

NNPC's Managing Director Andrew Yakubu making a presentation at the LNG Producer-Consumer Conference in Tokyo, Japan. Credit: NNPC

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The NNPC made its position known in a press release on its website. Sanusi on Tuesday told the Senate Committee on Finance chaired by Ahmed Makarfi that out of $67bn of crude oil the NNPC sold between January 2012 and January 2013, only $47bn came to the CBN.

The CBN Governor first raised concerns about the 'missing' revenue late last year in a memo to the President Goodluck Jonathan that leaked to the press.

Back then Sanusi alleged that $49.8bn was not unaccounted for, but the government admitted that $10.8bn was yet to be remitted.

However, the CBN chief still insists that $20bn is missing. 'CBN is not an auditing outfit'. Talking with journalists on the sidelines of the Senate Committee hearing room, NNPC's Managing Director Andrew Yakubu stated that these were "unsubstantiated" claims which demonstrated "a little understanding of the technicalities of the oil industry" by the CBN.

"CBN is not an auditing outfit. But what it is doing is now auditing. We have no problem with auditing, but let the professionals, the certified bodies and agencies that are charged with this responsibility of auditing, to do their work" he added.

Yakubu further said that the issues raised by the CBN boss will be reconciled by the Inter Agency Committee established to settle the $49.8bn saga.

"Our position remains the same and we remain open to all stakeholders. These are issues that are currently before the reconciliation committee and before now it has been a subject of monthly verification before FAAC [the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee] and other stakeholders," he said

Yakubu added that a lot of progress had been made in the reconciliation of the $10.8 billion and expressed hope that by the time the Committee meets next week the final report would be ready, and NNPC will be vindicated.