Olushola Bello
The CBN Governor, Olayemi Cardoso, meets with the NNPCL Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari, in Abuja on February 8, 2024.
In a move to douse the tension created by the movement of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) revenue to Central Bank of Nigeria, the two institutions have demonstrated through their meeting on Thursday to set a limit on oil revenue management, that the action by the federal government was part of the collaborative efforts to stabilize the foreign exchange market.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has collaborated with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to set limits for the management of the oil firm’s revenue.
The limit was set following a meeting between the CBN Governor, Olayemi Cardoso, and the NNPCL Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari, in Abuja.
This was disclosed in a statement jointly signed on Thursday by the NNPCL spokesman, Olufemi Soneye, and his CBN counterpart, Hakama Sidi Ali.
Kyari and Cardoso decided to meet to review the decision to transfer revenue generated by NNPCL to the apex bank.
According to the statement, Kyari and Cardoso “reviewed the decision of the NNPCL to domicile a significant portion of its revenues and other banking services with the CBN”.
The meeting also allowed the duo to strengthen CBN and NNPC’s relationship to guarantee seamless commercial operation.
“The CBN has provided enhanced digital platforms for all transactions and has established specific limits to manage NNPCL transactions,” the statement read.
“Both parties have also committed to further strengthening the collaboration to ensure seamless operations of the commercial NNPC limited and noted that NNPCL continues to have banking transactions with commercial banks as required.”
Atiku Abubakar, former vice-president, has said the federal government’s decision to transfer the revenue of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is illegal.
Atiku in a statement said Tinubu’s directive undermined the operational independence of the national oil company.
“Without prejudice to the possibility of any good that was intended in the decision of the Federal Government to make the Central Bank of Nigeria take over the responsibility for crude oil sales proceeds from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, it must be clearly stated that the action is not legal in its application”, he stated.
The former Vice President who noted that little has been communicated to the public about explaining details of the decision, declared that “Whatever may be the merit of the new arrangement, the presidential directive is a violation of the legal status of the NNPCL.”
Atiku stated “It is an arbitrary order capable of undermining the operational independence of the NNPCL.
“By this order, Mr. President has wrested control of the finances of the NNPCL and donated the same to the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Nigeria.
“This is an unprecedented act, without any legal or ethical basis. It is also a violation of the principle of due process in public administration. State-owned enterprises are not subject to such arbitrary orders and have full control over their finances within the confines of their respective establishment laws.
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