Nigeria: Press spotlights plans by NNPCL to pay royalties, taxes from $3.3bn loan, others

APA – Lagos (Nigeria)
The report that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, on Sunday, said that it would prepay future royalties and taxes to the Federal Government from the $3.3bn financing deal it got from African Export-Import Bank last year is one of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Monday.
The Punch reports that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, on Sunday, said it would prepay future royalties and taxes to the Federal Government from the $3.3bn financing deal it got from African Export-Import Bank last year.
NNPCL disclosed this in a document titled, ‘Frequently Asked Questions – Project Gazelle’, released by its Chief Corporate Communications Officer, Olufemi Soneye, on Sunday night.
On August 17, 2023, The PUNCH reported that the NNPCL announced that it had secured a $3.3bn emergency crude oil repayment loan from the African Export-Import Bank.
It explained that the loan would be used by the oil company to support the Federal Government in stabilising Nigeria’s exchange rate.
Providing more details about the deal on Sunday night in the document, the oil company said, “Everything you need to know about the NNPC Limited’s $3.3bn loan, also known as Project Gazelle.
“There has been a lot of interest from the public and stakeholders in recent weeks regarding the $3.3bn crude oil pre-payment loan, also known as Project Gazelle. This is a financing agreement secured by NNPC Limited to prepay future royalties and taxes to the Federal Government.”
The company also stated that it adopted a lower price benchmark for the $3.3bn crude-for-cash loan to reduce the risk of default and ensure financial stability.
The newspaper says that security experts have accused commercial banks of encouraging the kidnapping epidemic in the country, as some ransoms are paid into bank accounts.
The experts and analysts, who have backgrounds in military, intelligence, and policing, also stressed that abductions had become an industry enabled by the financial institutions that received ransoms. They advised President Bola Tinubu and security to end the epidemic.
Previously restricted to the North-West, abductions have in recent times spread to other parts of the country, including Lagos, Ogun, Nasarawa, and Delta states, as well as the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
In the past weeks, several incidents of kidnappings have been reported in the FCT, with over 25 persons taken away by suspected bandits who demanded huge ransoms for their release.
Speaking on the complicity of banks in the growth of the abduction business, the Managing Director of Beacon Consulting, Adamu Kabiru, affirmed that banks were involved in collecting ransoms.
Speaking in an interview on TVC, the security and risk consultant categorically stated that two banks were involved in two kidnap-for-ransom cases, which he was aware of.
He said, “I will shock you today to tell you that in almost all the cases where my company was involved, the money was collected through our banking system, and I say this with a sense of responsibility. In almost all, it was only in very few circumstances that cash was collected and taken to these guys (kidnappers).
“They are so brave and bold that they provide account numbers. Two banks are guilty, and because this is a public forum, I will not mention the banks’ names.
“But of course, if the security agencies are interested and they listen to this, I will be happy to provide it to them if they don’t already know.”
The Guardian reports that oIL theft at the Oil Mining License (OML) 17 has dipped from 97 per cent in 2021 to 15 per cent in 2023, recording over 82 per cent drop, while pushing production to 40,000 barrels per day (bpd).
Heirs Energies disclosed yesterday that the assets acquired for $1.2 billion from Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited, Total E&P Nigeria Limited and ENI, with a joint venture partnership with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) are supplying 100 per cent of its gas production to the domestic market.
This comes at a time that Nigeria is struggling to tame oil theft and vandalism to increase production, which currently hovers around 1.3 million bpd against the 1.78 million bpd expected in the 2024 budget.
At the weekend, NNPCL noted that over 4,090 illegal refineries were deactivated last year to fight crude theft.
Marking its three-year anniversary, Heirs Energy attributed the significant reduction in theft and ramping up of oil production to a strategy built on community engagement.
The company said the definitive actions being taken by the government to address pipeline security and related concerns were paying off.
The move, according to the organisation, is aimed at securing Nigeria’s sustainable energy future.
Chairman of the company, Tony Elumelu, in a release signed by Head of External Relations, Chidimma Ugbojiaku, said the energy sector has not served Nigeria’s interest.
He observed: “As someone from the Niger Delta, I had seen firsthand how Nigeria’s resource wealth can be mishandled. I knew Nigeria could do better and control her destiny. My vision was to build Africa’s largest indigenous-owned integrated energy company, focused on Africa’s unique energy needs. As I look back now, we have more than succeeded.”
The newspaper says that the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) and 20 Nigerians have sued the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, for unilaterally and arbitrarily increasing the allocation for lawmakers from N197 billion to N344 billion, their highest since the return of democracy in 1999.
Akpabio and Abbas are sued for themselves and on behalf of all members of the National Assembly.
The lawmakers had, last month, raised their allocation from N197 billion proposed by President Bola Tinubu for them in the budget to N344 billion. The lawmakers will, in total, draw N514 billion from the 2024 budget.
The lawmakers had also in 2023 arbitrarily increased their own budget from the originally proposed N169 billion to N228 billion.
In the suit number FHC/ABJ/CS/68/2024 filed at the weekend at the Federal High Court, Abuja, the plaintiff are asking the court to determine whether the lawmakers, in the exercise of their powers over appropriation/money bills, can unilaterally increase their own budget without the re-presentation of the budget by the Executive.
The plaintiff wants the court to declare that the National Assembly, in the exercise of its powers over appropriation/money bills, cannot unilaterally increase its own budget without the re-presentation of the budget by the president in line with Section 81 of the Nigerian Constitution 1999 (as amended).
They asked the court to declare that the action of the National Assembly, by unilaterally increasing its own budget from N197 billion to N344 billion without the re-presentation of the budget by the President, is a breach of the democratic principles of separation of powers and checks and balances.
No date has been fixed for the hearing of the suit.
GIK/APA