Yemie Adeoye 20 March 2014, Sweetcrude, Abuja – Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas, NLNG, has declared 2013 tax profile of N220 billion, claiming that it has by that become the biggest tax payer in the country and drives gas as an income earner for Nigeria.
NLNG Managing Director, Mr Babs Omotowa, stated this at a media briefing in Abuja to launch the company’s N2 billion University Support Programme, adding that the company has also commercialised over four trillion cubic feet, TCF, of natural gas to lead Nigeria’s aspiration for flare reduction at oil production sites.
He said the N2 billion it has donated for development of engineering education in six federal universities in the country would also be the biggest single direct intervention in the education sector to build a better Nigeria.
Mr Omotowa, who failed to provide details of the company’s financial remittances to the federation account, citing requirements of declaring financial reports, said however that over 70 percent of the company’s total revenues flow into the federation account to provide funding support to government’s annual budget.
According to him, the company is to spend N340 million or two million dollars in each of the six universities on the construction of modern engineering laboratories and other equipment needed to drive cutting edge advances in science and technology.
The universities adopted for the programme include are the University of Ibadan, University of Ilorin, University of Port Harcourt, University of Maiduguri, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
He said the University Support Programme, USP, naturally aligned with the company’s running intervention in promotion of advances in science and literature.
He said the USP followed observation that no Nigerian university ranked among the world’s first 500 or made it into the list of elite universities in peer African countries and that the NLNG adopted the universities following a compelling need to rescue the standard of education in the country.
He stated that Nigeria’s aspiration to become a developed nation could only be realised when the country’s education system is firmly fixed, adding that well-meaning stakeholders in the country’s future must assist in salvaging the standard of education in the country.
“Well-meaning stakeholders need to urgently join hands to turn around the poor quality of education in the country for the future of Nigeria to get better,” he said.
He added that NLNG’s corporate social responsibility portfolio spans education, healthcare, infrastructure, enterprise and capacity development across the country. According to him, the company considered education a special focus area to complement the various efforts of government to improve the quality of education.
In addition to the University USP, according to him, NLNG has provided equipment to the Rivers State University of Science and Technology and Braithwaite Teaching Hospital in Port Harcourt; and the establishment of the Bonny Vocational Centre to fill skill gaps in various industry sectors in the country.
Mr. Omotowa said the vocational centre is already certified by the City and Guides of London to churn out world-class technicians.
The company, he said, also runs a scholarship programme that covers secondary, tertiary and overseas post-graduate and maritime studies. He added that the company has also sustained a science quiz competition, provides educational materials and constructs classrooms across its host communities.