*Higher than budgets of 3 states combined
Ike Amos
Lagos — Salaries, wages and other benefits of the about 6,621 staff of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, rose by 4.3 per cent to N357.098 billion in 2019, compared to N342.36 billion in 2018.
The data of the salaries, wages and other emoluments of NNPC staff was obtained from the corporation’s 2019 audited financial statement.
This highlights the widespread disparity in pay of public service employees in Nigeria, especially as the national minimum wage is N30,000 monthly.
Furthermore, in the 2019 financials, the NNPC said it paid N91.336 billion to the government as income tax in 2019; and N74.177 billion as interest on loans in the same year.
Ironically, the N357.098 billion salary of NNPC staff is higher than the N127.36 billion, N131.74 billion and N152.77 billion earmarked for capital expenditure in the proposed 2021 budget for the Federal Ministry of Education, Federal Ministry of Health and Federal Ministry of Water Resources, respectively.
It is also higher than the N256.89 billion, N198.28 billion, N89.97 billion N64.84 billion and N10.19 billion budgeted for capital expenditure in the proposed 2021 budget for the ministries of Transport, Power, Aviation, Science and Technology, and Mines and Steel Development, respectively.
The salary is also more than the 2020 budgets of three south-east states – Enugu, Anambra and Imo states — combined, which is N350.3 billion. Specifically, the 2020 budget of Enugu, Anambra and Imo states is N146.4 billion, N114.9 billion and N89 billion respectively.
In addition, the salary of NNPC’s staff is higher than Delta State’s 2020 budget of N282 billion; Kano, Kaduna, Borno and Sokoto’s budgets of N206.27 billion, N259.25 billion, N108.8 billion and N153 billion respectively; while the 2020 budget of Edo, Rivers and Abia states were N128.8 billion, N300.37 billion and N102.6 billion respectively.
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The NNPC, had a few months back, stated that its staff strength, as at April 20, 2020, stood at 6,621, both at its headquarters and across all its subsidiaries, division and offices nationwide. The NNPC has 13 divisions and Strategic Business Units, SBU, nationwide
To this end, the N357.098 billion, if divided among the 6,621 staff of the NNPC, translates to an average salary of N53.93 million per employee in 2019.
The NNPC Group had also stated that 27.2 per cent of its total workforce, comprising 1,801 staff is currently employed in the Corporate Headquarters.
Hence, from the N357.098 billion total, staff of the NNPC corporate headquarters alone — not including employees of other subsidiaries — received N103.7 billion as salaries, wages and other benefits in the year under review, an increase of 13.26 per cent compared with N91.56 billion recorded in 2018.
To this end, from the N103.7 billion, an average staff of the NNPC’s corporate headquarters received N57.58 million as salary, wages and other benefits in 2019.
In addition, the NNPC had stated that 13 per cent of the group’s total workforce was employed in the Nigerian Pipelines and Storage Company (NPSC); while 758 individuals are currently employed in the moribund Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company, KRPC, representing 11.4 per cent of the NNPC Group’s total workforce.
The Port Harcourt Refining Company, PHRC, which is currently shut down and awaiting revamp, has 655 staff; Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, NPDC, 550 staff; the moribund Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company, WRPC, has 485 staff; NNPC’s commercial and investment subsidiary, National Petroleum Investment Management Services, NAPIMS, has 426 staff; while the corporation’s downstream subsidiary, the Petroleum Products Marketing Company, PPMC, has 255 staff.
In addition, the document noted that Nigerian Gas Company, NGC, has 254 staff; Integrated Data Services Limited, 175 staff; Crude Oil Marketing Division of the NNPC and Nigerian Gas Marketing Company, NGMC, 152 staff each; while National Engineering and Technical Company Limited (NETCO) has 64 staff in its employ.
The NNPC had in its report of compliance to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative’s (EITI) Open Data requirements, revealed that 81.7 per cent of its workforce, comprising 5,410 individuals, were male, while 1,211 were women, representing 18.3 per cent of its total staff strength.