The Nigerian Senate has launched an investigation into subsidy payments of ₦5.1 trillion by Nigeria’s central government to state oil company, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), from 2006 to 2016. A public hearing began at the Senate on Monday in Abuja.But appearing before the Senate, NNPC’s chief financial officer, Isiaka Abdulrazak, said the subsidy claims and entitlements by the NNPC were submitted and verified by the regulatory agency, Petroleum Products
Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), who then approved and issued the relevant certificates.
“The subsidy approved for NNPC is backed out of the domestic crude cost payable to Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC),” said Abdulrazak.
He also said that out of the ₦5.1 trillion claim, ₦170.6 billion was still owed to the NNPC.
However, Kabiru Marafa who is leading the Senate committee on the probe demanded for more information from the corporation.
He said: “We need more information on how these funds were paid from 2006-2016. We have paid N10 trillion in subsidy, we cannot talk about subsidy without recognizing the volume they come in.”
The committee had earlier said, in a report submitted to the Senate, that the nation lost over N300 billion to subsidy in 2017 alone, which was illegal since there was no parliamentary approval.
Landing cost of petrol at N171 per litre was confirmed by both Nigeria’s minister of state for petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu and the vice president,
Yemi Osinbajo, but the official pump price is N145, leaving the federal government to soak the ₦26 differential through NNPC.
