Since 2016, the NNPC has been operating a Direct Sale Direct Purchase (DSDP) arrangement. Under this arrangement, NNPC exported crude oil to approximately 16 oil trading companies. In return, the oil trading companies imported refined products (including petrol) of the same value for NNPC. These products were then sold to oil marketers for distribution/sale to the Nigerian public. Any loss by the NNPC was then to be covered by a fuel subsidy. So, any corruption around fuel subsidy and DSDP was within the NNPC.
Using figures from the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) and the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) show that NNPC made annual profits with its DSDP arrangement in 2019 and 2020. This profit was almost $72 million in 2019. Yet, NNPC collected $1.6 billion as fuel subsidy for that year. Similarly, for 2020, NNPC made a profit of nearly $490 million for its DSDP program Yet, the NNPC collected $370 million as fuel subsidy for 2020.
These figures are shown in the following graph:
In 2019 almost all the fuel subsidy (97%) was claimed by NNPC under DSDP. NNPC also claimed all the fuel subsidies over the period 2020-2023 under DSDP. So, any corruption with fuel subsidy under DSDP from 2016 to 2023 is by the NNPC and so within and internal to Government. When the Government says there was corruption with fuel subsidy they know because they are stealing the money.
The NNPC has always been allowed to be very secretive by the PDP and then the APC Governments. NNPC did not even issue annual accounts as required by law for a long time. It did this for the first time in 43 years in June 2020, for the 2018 financial year. The accounts for 2019 and 2020 were issued in September 2021 and those for 2021 in October 2022. It has still not issued its annual accounts for 2022. So, the NNPC does not even comply with the basic requirements of accountability for public companies. This is because their financial statements are issued within 90 of the year’s end.
All the fuel subsidy claims by NNPC under the DSDP arrangement from 2016 to 2023 were false. The recent policy to increase petrol prices to remove the “fuel subsidy” corruption is wrong and a lie. It is harming the poor masses rather than those within NNPC who made false subsidy claims.
We are citizens of a neoliberal IMF-induced crime scene. It is our duty to hold our leaders and government accountable. It is our duty to fight for our interests. We need mass resistant actions against the staggering corruption within NNPC and the government for their terrible attack on working people by tripling the price of petrol.
We are citizens of a neoliberal IMF-induced crime scene. It is our duty to hold our leaders and government accountable. It is our duty to fight for our interests. We need mass resistant actions against the staggering corruption within NNPC and the government for their terrible attack on working people by tripling the price of petrol.