…Vows to make corporation most capitalised company in Africa
By Abimbola Abatta and Uthman Salami
The Federal Government has announced plans of $105billion capital base target for the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited.
This, according to the Government, is aimed at making NNPC the biggest and most capitalised company in Africa.
President Muhammadu Buhari, represented by the Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva, disclosed this on Monday at the 5th edition of the Nigerian International Energy Summit (NIES) held at the Presidential Banquet Hall in Abuja.
On the President Buhari-led Administration’s target to make NNPC the largest company in the continent, Sylva said, “To demonstrate our seriousness, the administration did not waste time with the implementation of the PIA.
“We have also ensured the incorporation of the NNPC Ltd under the Companies and Allied Matters Act.
“The NNPC is a limited company now and our target is to make it the biggest and the most capitalised and the most profitable company in the whole of Africa,” he added
Meanwhile, as the push for low carbon energy intensifies, the summit, previously named the Nigerian Petroleum Summit, was rebranded to replace ‘petroleum’ with ‘energy’.
To speed up Nigeria’s commitment to achieve net zero emission by 2060, the government launched the ‘Decade of Gas’, which makes gas the transition fuel. The country equally signed the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) in the third quarter of last year to overhaul the oil industry.
At the summit themed: “Revitalising the Industry: Future Fuels and Energy Transition,” President Buhari described the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) as an investment booster, noting that it provides more business opportunities for NNPC Ltd to earn more revenue.
The PIA became active as part of the measures to shed some of NNPC’s toxic liabilities and make the company the largest and most capitalised company in the whole of Africa.
According to the Minister, “The energy sector has been elevated to become the goose that lays the golden egg for the nation under the leadership of the President Muhammadu Buhari.
“Both energy poverty and the climate change nexus have to be addressed simultaneously. It must be geared towards clean and sustainable sources.
“For countries such as Nigeria that are rich in natural resources, but still energy poor, the transition must not come at the expense of affordable and reliable energy for people, cities and industries.
“On the contrary, it must be inclusive, equitable and just, which means preserving the right type of sustainable development and poverty eradication as enshrined in global treaties such as the Paris Accord.”
He mentioned that “it is evident that what makes sense from the point of view of balancing energy security with environmental sustainability is the use of gas as a transition fuel.”