NNPC: We don’t have $3.5bn subsidy fund in our custody

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) says it does not have a $3.5 billion subsidy fund.

On Tuesday, the senate resolved to probe the subsidy recovery fund said to be managed by Maikanti Baru, group managing director (GMD) of the NNPC, and the corporation’s finance officer.

In a statement on Tuesday, Ndu Ughamadu, spokesman of the NNPC, said the corporation raised $1.05 billion after the national assembly asked it to prevent the shortage of products that occurred at the close of 2017.

Ughamadu explained that since the corporation is the sole importer of petroleum products into the country, the aforementioned sum was raised for that purpose and it was domiciled in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

He said there was no time that the fund was in the custody of the NNPC.

Ughamadu said the National Fuel Support Fund is jointly managed by the NNPC, CBN and ministry of finance.

He said other managers of the fund include; the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OGF), the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and the Petroleum Equalization Fund (PEF).

While noting that it was only the national assembly that had the responsibility to appropriate on petroleum subsidy matters, the spokesman said the NNPC has not spent a dime of the fund independently.