Despite posting N287bn profit, NNPC’s revenue drops by N916bn

Nearly two weeks after declaring its first profit in its 44-year history, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation said on Wednesday that its group revenue for the 2020 financial year fell to N3.72tn from N4.63tn in 2019. This shows a difference of N916bn.

The corporation, while announcing the release of its 2020 audited financial statements, said the decrease in revenue could be attributed to the decline in the production and price of crude oil due to the global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), had on August 26 announced a net profit of N287bn reported by the NNPC for the 2020 financial year from a loss position of N1.7bn in the previous year.

The corporation said in compliance with the President’s directive, it had fulfilled ‘this very important statutory requirement’ by publishing its audited financial statements.

The statement noted that the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mele Kyari, had at various times attributed ‘the turnaround to aggressive cost cutting, automation of the system and renegotiation of contracts downwards by about 30 per cent, among other tough measures’.

It said, “Further highlights of the AFS revealed that while the corporation’s group financial position increased in total current assets by 18.7 per cent compared to that of 2019, its total current liabilities increased by 11.4 per cent within the same period.

“The group’s working capital remained below the line at N4.56tn in 2020 as against N4.44tn in 2019, the AFS further revealed.”

It added that this was the third consecutive year that the NNPC was publishing its AFS.