OpeOluwani Akintayo
01 November 2018, Sweetcrude, Lagos — Statistics from the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, NEITI, have shown that Nigeria lost over N500 billion to unremitted oil funds from 1999 to 2015.
A breakdown shows that $22.06 billion and N481.75 billion are yet to be remitted by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, and Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, NPDC, and other companies and agencies to the federation account.
According to NEITI, the huge sum was lost as a result of legacy issues arising from its audit reports for the period under review.
The bulk of the outstanding amounts is from Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas, NLNG, dividends from the period 2000 to 2015 and outstanding payments for the value of 12 Oil Mining Licenses, OMLs, divested to NPDC between 2011 and 2013.
The NEITI report showed that total loss to the federation arising from crude oil production, processing, and transportation was $3.04 billion and N60.99 billion, while unreconciled differences from allocation, sale and remittance of revenue from domestic crude allocated to NNPC was N317.48 billion.