The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited remitted a total of N2.7bn into its accounts with the Central Bank of Nigeria from January to June this year, a document on NNPC remittances to CBN seen in Abuja on Sunday showed.
Contradicting the claims of CBN that the weakening value of the naira was caused by the non-remittance of funds into Nigeria’s foreign reverses by NNPC, the document stated that out of the $2.7bn the oil firm remitted into its CBN accounts, $645m was for dividend paid by the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas company Limited.
It added that $1.786bn was from the operational activities of the national oil company, which recently transited into a limited liability company. In its reaction to the crash in the value of naira against the United States dollar, the CBN had said the non-remittance of dollars by NNPC precipitated the forex crisis.
In a report entitled, “The forex question in Nigeria: Fact sheet,” the apex bank reportedly stated that there had been “zero-dollar remittance to the country’s foreign reserve by the NNPC.” But the document seen in Abuja on Sunday claimed otherwise, as it stated that NNPC remitted $2.7bn to CBN in the first six months of this year.
