On Thursday, the Group Chief Executive Officer, NNPCL, Mele Kyari, announced that the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) has created a department to deal with crude oil sales transactions by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.
This came as the national oil major declared that there was no imminent hike in the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol. NNPCL is the sole importer of petrol into Nigeria, a role it has shouldered for several years.
Kyari also revealed that the Board of Directors of NNPCL had approved the decision to move significant portions of the company’s revenues to the apex bank.
In January, it was reported that President Bola Tinubu had directed the CBN to assume the responsibility for crude oil sales proceeds from the NNPCL. Consequently, NNPCL is expected to submit the receipts for crude oil sales to CBN for vetting and documentation.
In a video made available to journalists in Abuja on the meeting between CBN delegation, led by the bank’s Governor, Olayemi Cardoso, and the management of NNPCL at the latter’s headquarters, Kyari welcomed the decision to move the oil firm’s transactions to CBN.
He said, “We welcome the governor of the CBN and his senior management team to NNPC Ltd. We understand very clearly that this review of our decision to move significant portions of our revenues to the CBN is very timely.
“We made that decision in line with the directives of our Board of Directors to maintain safe obligor limits with commercial banks. And for us to do this, we do need additional support, particularly from the CBN to achieve this.
“We are a very huge company, our transaction and liquidity levels are very high, and perhaps we are the largest business in this country. We are also happy that the CBN has created a robust digital platform for our transactions.”
“It has created a department that will deal with NNPC issues and will create no hindrance to our operations. We will continue to collaborate with the CBN to ensure that further improvements are received so that this relationship serves the best interest of our company and, of course, our country.”
On his part, Cardoso said the CBN had restructured its internal processes to be capable of taking on the enormous responsibility that would be placed on the bank by the national oil company.
He said, “We have come to this particular stage where the NNPC has made the decision to move a respectable part of its business to the CBN.
“I also want to say that we have restructured and strengthened our internal processes such that we will be very capable of taking on this enormous responsibility that will be placed in the central bank.
