Nigeria's state-owned oil company has failed to pay the government $16bn (£11bn) in a suspected fraud, according to an official audit.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) provided no explanation for the missing funds, the auditor general told MPs.
Oil revenue accounts for two-thirds of the government's funding.
President Muhammadu Buhari has promised to crack down on corruption since coming to office last May.
The NNPC has not commented on the auditor general's findings.
The state oil giant has been mired in corruption allegations and losing money for many years.
Last month, the government announced that the NNPC would be broken up into seven different companies.
Nigeria's former central bank governor Lamido Sanusi, now the Emir of Kano, was dismissed by the previous administration after saying that $20bn (£12bn) in oil revenue had gone missing in 2013.
A separate audit ordered under former President Goodluck Jonathan and carried out by global accountancy firm PwC, found that the NNPC had failed to pay the government $1.48bn between January 2012 and July 2013.
It did not provide a total figure for how much revenue the NNPC should legally have handed over to the treasury.
However, the company said that it could not vouch for the integrity of the information it was given when it conducted the audit.
Nigeria is Africa's biggest oil producer, but the economy has suffered because of the fall in the price of oil.
BBC
Tuesday, March 15, 2016
Monday, March 14, 2016
Video - Electricity bills increase in Nigeria despite irregular supply
Nigerians will soon be facing higher electricity costs as providers say it's the only way to improve power supply.
But consumers do not agree. Many say access to power should improve, before prices go up.
Video - South Africa president visits Nigeria to boost trade
The relationship between two of Africa's largest economies South Africa and Nigeria seems to be on a new path of recovery. South Africa's President Jacob Zuma's two-day state visit to Nigeria this week has seen a raft of agreements signed to boost diplomatic and economic ties between the two countries.
Government of Nigeria to deal with power supply saboteurs
The Federal Government has warned that it will deal ruthlessly with those engaged in pipeline vandalism and the sabotage of power infrastructure that have combined to drastically reduce power generation/transmission as well as fuel supplies in recent times, thus inflicting untold hardship on Nigerians.
In a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday, the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, said the repeated attacks on oil and gas pipelines and the wilful shutdown of power facilities by protesters amount to economic sabotage which no government will tolerate.
”Vandals, whatever their motives are, cannot and will not be treated with kid gloves because their actions constitute a clear and present danger to the nation’s economic, social and political well being. The attack on the Forcados Export Terminal that has affected gas production by oil firms and reduced gas supply to power generating plants and the shutdown of the Utorogu gas plant are totally condemnable and cannot be allowed to continue.
”Also, while this Administration will not do anything to abridge the constitutional rights of any individual or group to carry out protests, it will also not tolerate a situation in which anyone will hide under the guise of legitimate protests to sabotage power infrastructure. The shutdown of the national transmission facility in Osogbo and the Ikeja Disco by some unionists amount to economic sabotage,” he said.
Mr. Mohammed said the government is not unaware that as it steps up the fight against corruption, corruption will vigorously fight back in many forms, including the destruction/sabotage of key national infrastructure to make the government look bad.
”However, nothing will make this government to slow down in its anti-corruption fight and no one who is corrupt will be spared,” he assured.
The minister appealed to Nigerians to join hands with the government to check the activities of the unscrupulous and unpatriotic elements who have taken it upon themselves to continuously work against the interest of the people.
”When oil and gas facilities are vandalized, the impact is felt directly by Nigerians. When power infrastructure is sabotaged for whatever reasons, Nigerians bear the brunt. While those actions may be aimed at discrediting the government, those who pay the price are the vast majority of innocent, law-abiding and well-meaning Nigerians, not just the vandals or the saboteurs. This is why Nigerians must not allow the few recreants behind these attacks to hold sway,” he said.
Mr. Mohammed said the power situation is gradually improving as generation has now increased to around 4,000MW while the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, has assured that the prevailing fuel queues will gradually ease in the next few days.
Premium Times
In a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday, the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, said the repeated attacks on oil and gas pipelines and the wilful shutdown of power facilities by protesters amount to economic sabotage which no government will tolerate.
”Vandals, whatever their motives are, cannot and will not be treated with kid gloves because their actions constitute a clear and present danger to the nation’s economic, social and political well being. The attack on the Forcados Export Terminal that has affected gas production by oil firms and reduced gas supply to power generating plants and the shutdown of the Utorogu gas plant are totally condemnable and cannot be allowed to continue.
”Also, while this Administration will not do anything to abridge the constitutional rights of any individual or group to carry out protests, it will also not tolerate a situation in which anyone will hide under the guise of legitimate protests to sabotage power infrastructure. The shutdown of the national transmission facility in Osogbo and the Ikeja Disco by some unionists amount to economic sabotage,” he said.
Mr. Mohammed said the government is not unaware that as it steps up the fight against corruption, corruption will vigorously fight back in many forms, including the destruction/sabotage of key national infrastructure to make the government look bad.
”However, nothing will make this government to slow down in its anti-corruption fight and no one who is corrupt will be spared,” he assured.
The minister appealed to Nigerians to join hands with the government to check the activities of the unscrupulous and unpatriotic elements who have taken it upon themselves to continuously work against the interest of the people.
”When oil and gas facilities are vandalized, the impact is felt directly by Nigerians. When power infrastructure is sabotaged for whatever reasons, Nigerians bear the brunt. While those actions may be aimed at discrediting the government, those who pay the price are the vast majority of innocent, law-abiding and well-meaning Nigerians, not just the vandals or the saboteurs. This is why Nigerians must not allow the few recreants behind these attacks to hold sway,” he said.
Mr. Mohammed said the power situation is gradually improving as generation has now increased to around 4,000MW while the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, has assured that the prevailing fuel queues will gradually ease in the next few days.
Premium Times
China wants to buy more oil from Nigeria
In what might be perceived as a welcomed development, China has said that it would need more crude oil from Nigeria. NAN reports that Zao LingXiang who is the economic and commercial counsellor of the Chinese embassy in Nigeria made this declaration in Abuja.
In 2015, the total amount of crude oil export to China was only about one million barrels which was just 1.3 per cent of Nigerian annual export. He said: “In my opinion, it really doesn’t matter whether Iran comes back or not; Chinese companies want to import more crude oil from Nigeria.” He explained that current trade volume between Nigeria and China was $14.94 billion in 2014, making Nigeria third largest trade partner of China in Africa. The economic counsellor added that Nigeria’s trade figure was 8.3 per cent of China’s total trade volume with Africa and 42 per cent of the total trade volume between China and Africa.
“China is the largest developing country in the world and Nigeria is the largest developing country in Africa and both countries have complementary advantages in natural and human resources, funds and markets."
“Right now, the Nigerian government is trying to diversify its economy which is fully in line with the 10 China-Africa cooperation plans announced at the summit on China-Africa trade in Johannesburg in 2015. “There are great potential for cooperation between China and Nigeria in the fields of industrialisation, agricultural modernisation, infrastructure construction, financial services, trade and investment facilitation, among others.”
LinXiang said that in the area of infrastructure, the two countries had made significant development. He said that President Muhammadu Buhari is expected to visit China in April and that this visit would facilitate the implementation of agreements reached at the 2015 China-African summit which took place in South Africa. The economic counselor explained that the total investment volume between China and Africa exceeded $100 billion in 2015 in spite of the decline in imports from Africa.
“The amount in import from Africa to China declined but did not decline remarkably."
“Moreover, the economic and trade cooperation between China and Africa is not only about trade but technical cooperation as well."
“China’s total investment volume in Africa last year increased by 100 times more in a short span of 10 years, which shows that cooperation between both parties is moving to a new level,” he said.
Oil prices rose close to $40 per barrel on March 7. The reduction in the output of US production increased the North American WTI crude benchmark. Brent crude which is the benchmark in the pricing of Nigerian oil increased by nearly 0.76 percent and reached some of the highest levels since early January and standing at $39.48 per barrel.
Naij
In 2015, the total amount of crude oil export to China was only about one million barrels which was just 1.3 per cent of Nigerian annual export. He said: “In my opinion, it really doesn’t matter whether Iran comes back or not; Chinese companies want to import more crude oil from Nigeria.” He explained that current trade volume between Nigeria and China was $14.94 billion in 2014, making Nigeria third largest trade partner of China in Africa. The economic counsellor added that Nigeria’s trade figure was 8.3 per cent of China’s total trade volume with Africa and 42 per cent of the total trade volume between China and Africa.
“China is the largest developing country in the world and Nigeria is the largest developing country in Africa and both countries have complementary advantages in natural and human resources, funds and markets."
“Right now, the Nigerian government is trying to diversify its economy which is fully in line with the 10 China-Africa cooperation plans announced at the summit on China-Africa trade in Johannesburg in 2015. “There are great potential for cooperation between China and Nigeria in the fields of industrialisation, agricultural modernisation, infrastructure construction, financial services, trade and investment facilitation, among others.”
LinXiang said that in the area of infrastructure, the two countries had made significant development. He said that President Muhammadu Buhari is expected to visit China in April and that this visit would facilitate the implementation of agreements reached at the 2015 China-African summit which took place in South Africa. The economic counselor explained that the total investment volume between China and Africa exceeded $100 billion in 2015 in spite of the decline in imports from Africa.
“The amount in import from Africa to China declined but did not decline remarkably."
“Moreover, the economic and trade cooperation between China and Africa is not only about trade but technical cooperation as well."
“China’s total investment volume in Africa last year increased by 100 times more in a short span of 10 years, which shows that cooperation between both parties is moving to a new level,” he said.
Oil prices rose close to $40 per barrel on March 7. The reduction in the output of US production increased the North American WTI crude benchmark. Brent crude which is the benchmark in the pricing of Nigerian oil increased by nearly 0.76 percent and reached some of the highest levels since early January and standing at $39.48 per barrel.
Naij
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